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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921637">A Little Holiday Magic</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NainThePain/pseuds/NainThePain'>NainThePain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - No Powers, And maybe Karolina by the end?, And so do Victor and Molly, Based on all those Christmas romcoms, But don't get me wrong I love Christmas romcoms, Christmas, F/F, Holidays, Kind of makes fun of them though, Winter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:14:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,924</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921637</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NainThePain/pseuds/NainThePain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Victor Mancha loves Christmas romcoms more than nearly anything else in the world.</p>
<p>So when he realizes his overworked boss, Karolina Dean, could use a little holiday magic in her life, he sends her to the nearby Christmas town of Old Lace in the hopes that she'll live out her own Christmas romcom story.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru, Victor Mancha/Chase Stein</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay so I wasn't planning on posting a Christmas fic, but then I had this idea on Friday and I've been writing like crazy since then to get the first couple chapters prepared and have a rough outline for the rest, and as a result I have not touched my summative assignment for one of my courses yet, and it's due in a couple days, so that's fun.</p><p>Oh well, Runaways is more important than school obviously, so please enjoy!</p><p>I will be updating Sundays.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If there’s one thing that Victor Mancha loves, it’s Christmas. </p>
<p>Well, Christmas and Molly Hayes. So really there are two things. </p>
<p>He and Molly have been working together at the Dean Foundation for almost a year now, ever since he managed to talk his way into getting her hired as an intern in his office. She’s definitely qualified, that wasn’t the concern, she’s just younger than most of the other interns, though her seemingly boundless energy and devoted work ethic have since proven her as a valuable hire. </p>
<p>They’ve been best friends for as long as Victor can remember- or for as long as he cares to remember, at least, and while they usually manage to find time to spend together over the holidays, this will be the first time since Victor graduated high school that they’ll be seeing each other regularly, and yeah, Victor’s pretty excited. </p>
<p>Okay, that might be a bit of an understatement. He’s incredibly pumped to be able to spend the holidays with his favourite person in the whole world for the first time in years!</p>
<p>Anyways, back to why Victor loves Christmas so much. </p>
<p>It's a question he has been asked many times over his twenty-three years, and really he’s never been able to settle on just one answer.</p>
<p>He loves the way the air just seems lighter, even when it’s cold enough to see your breath, and the wind has a real bite to it.</p>
<p>He loves the way everyone’s just a little bit happier, seasonal decorations hanging from nearly every available surface, trees strung with lights, holiday songs playing on every radio station and in every store.</p>
<p>He loves the food, and the baking, and <em>of course</em> the advent calendars. </p>
<p>But above all else, he loves settling in on the couch under too many blankets, hot chocolate in hand and Molly by his side, to watch Christmas romcoms. </p>
<p>He knows they’re cheesy, and overdone, and in all honesty, they all have basically the same plotline, and yet he can’t help but fall back on the easy simplicity of watching career-driven white girls from the big city fall in love with outdoorsy men who somehow convince them to give it all up for no reason, set in tiny little Christmas towns that can’t possibly exist in real life.</p>
<p>This is how he finds himself on the couch in his basement, hot chocolate in hand, just pulling a blanket over to cover himself and Molly as they get ready to watch their twelfth holiday romcom of the season, despite the fact that it’s only the eleventh of December and there are still two weeks until Christmas.</p>
<p>“Okay, it’s your turn to pick,” Molly tells him, passing over the remote control, and Victor sighs contentedly as he scrolls through the various movies they have yet to see on his streaming service.</p>
<p>Today was a long day at work, and despite his fondness for his boss, Karolina Dean, daughter of the founding couple of the Dean Foundation, she can be a little tough sometimes. </p>
<p>He had asked to put up some Christmas decorations around the office, but that had been shot down just as quickly as his request to play some Christmas music before a meeting had been the day before. Miss Dean had told him that the workplace was no place for festivities, and should he wish to indulge on his own time, that was his prerogative, but he won’t be doing any such thing on company time, and certainly not with company resources. </p>
<p>He’s pretty sure that she would have them all work straight through the holidays if she could, something that he’s fairly certain she herself does. </p>
<p>But oh well, at least he’ll be getting time off soon enough, and it’s not like he doesn’t like his job or anything. He just wouldn’t mind if it were just a <em>little</em> more festive this time of the year. </p>
<p>In an attempt to shrug off the day’s events, he eventually settles on a movie titled <em>The J-Team</em>, featuring a couple of actors that he likes, and leans back into the cushions of the couch as the opening credits roll, set to an overused Christmas song.</p>
<p>“You ready?” Moly grins as the scene is set, a dark haired woman appearing on screen, dressed for a meeting and a serious expression on her face as she heads towards her office.</p>
<p>“Definitely,” Victor laughs in response, easily returning the grin, and the two spend the next hour and forty-five minutes watching a story they’ve seen countless times before be retold.</p>
<p>They watch with rapt attention as Ashley tells her coworker Todd to turn off the Christmas music and get back to work. Molly’s grabbing a cookie from the tray Victor had put out on the coffee table as Ashley rolls her eyes at the festive decorations that had been strung up outside her apartment building. Neither of them can help the laughter that comes when Ashley very seriously tells everyone they’re being foolish with all the Christmas nonsense, when they know full well how this movie’s going to turn out. And Victor shakes his head disapprovingly as Ashley insists on continuing the law firm’s work over the break, laughing when the only client they have for her to work with is a man named Matthew who lives in a small town nearby that doesn’t have access to phones.</p>
<p>By the end of the movie, when Ashley has saved Matthew’s lumber store and given up her place at the law firm in order to chop wood with him all day and tend to the town’s rundown Christmas tree farm, Victor has the workings of an elaborate plan churning in his head, and he turns to Molly with a wide smile.</p>
<p>“Okay, what’s going on?” the younger girl asks, eying Victor suspiciously. “That movie was good, but not so good that it warrants this level of maniacal grinning.”</p>
<p>“I have an idea!” he says excitedly, and Molly’s expression turns amused as she waits for him to elaborate.</p>
<p>“Who does Ashley remind you of?” he asks, motioning to the end credit scroll currently on the TV screen, and the girl shrugs.</p>
<p>“Um, Jen, I guess? From that princess romcom we watched on Wednesday?” she tries, and Victor shakes his head vehemently in response.</p>
<p>“No, no. Think tall, blonde, hates the holidays?” he tells her, but she just shrugs.</p>
<p>“You’re literally describing Jen right now.”</p>
<p>“Ugh, no!” Victor sighs exasperatedly, but perks up quickly, unable to contain his excitement at his foolproof idea. “Miss Dean! She’s exactly like a character out of these romcoms!”</p>
<p>“Oh yeah,” Molly says with a laugh. “I guess you’re right! She totally is!”</p>
<p>“How did we not see this before?” Victor asks, joining in the laughter as they both play through all the moments in their heads where their boss has said exactly what the hard-working woman who hates Christmas in all their romcoms would say.</p>
<p>“So what’s your idea?” the girl asks after a minute, and Victor’s grin only widens.</p>
<p>“We’re going to give her her own Christmas romcom.”</p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>“Victor, this is a terrible idea,” Molly insists for the umpteenth time as they get off the elevator at work on Monday morning.</p>
<p>She’d been telling him the same thing all weekend long whenever he had brought it up, but he’s had sufficient time to reflect and he’s still positive that this is the right course of action. It’s what the Christmas romcom gods would want, and who is he but their humble servant?</p>
<p>Seriously though, he likes Karolina, and he’s pretty sure she could use a kind, outdoorsy guy and some Christmas spirit in her life. </p>
<p>And so, the plan.</p>
<p>He had spent the weekend preparing it, and he’s double, then triple, checked everything, and he’s positive that nothing can possibly go wrong. This time next month, Miss Dean will have quit her job to move to the nearby town of Old Lace.</p>
<p>He had been looking through the files for potential clients for the Dean Foundation’s new community outreach program, where they’re providing services to construct new infrastructure in smaller towns in order to help the local economy, and he was shocked when he came across the papers detailing a small town called Old Lace, named after some prehistoric dinosaur fossils found nearby which had been nicknamed that same name. </p>
<p>The town itself shouldn’t have been all that notable. There are dozens of small towns surrounding the outskirts of any big city, and Gibborim City was no different. What was surprising about this town in particular, was that its main source of revenue was listed as <em>Christmas tourism</em>. Upon further research, Victor had managed to discover that this town had not only one, but <em>four</em> year-round Christmas-themed shops.</p>
<p>It’s an honest-to-god Christmas town, straight out of one of their romcoms.</p>
<p><em>And</em>, by some miracle, during Victor’s internet deep-dive to collect whatever little information about this town had actually been put online, he discovered the social media profile of one Chase Stein, the charming and handsome, yet apparently humble, owner of one of the four Christmas shops, <em>Stein Ornaments</em>. And to top it all off, his profile status was set to single. </p>
<p>He sells handcrafted wooden Christmas ornaments all year round, which he makes from scratch, even going so far as to cut the tree down himself, and honestly Victor has half the mind to marry him if it weren’t for the fact that he’s trying to set Karolina up.</p>
<p>“You really shouldn’t do this,” Molly continues as she follows Victor to his desk, but he waves her off like he’s been doing ever since she first voiced her aversion to his flawless plan.</p>
<p>“Molls, it’s going to be fine. If I’ve learned anything from the hundreds of Christmas romcoms we’ve seen together, it’s that this is going to turn out great for everyone,” he reassures her confidently as he takes a seat at his computer, pulling the files up on the desktop and making sure everything’s in order for phase one of his plan.</p>
<p>“See, that’s the thing,” Molly continues, clearly not taking the hint that he needs this time before the boss gets in to prepare. “I’m not sure we were supposed to learn anything from those romcoms? Like, the morals aren’t the best, the women are always giving up actual paying jobs for these men they’ve only just met. And also the characters are almost always straight and white, and really it’s not very inclusive. Like, they’re fun to watch and all, but I wouldn’t make any life decisions that say, potentially risk your entire career based on them..”</p>
<p>“Don’t be silly,” Victor dismisses again, too engrossed in sending the relevant files to the printer to have paid any attention to what Molly just said. “It’s going to be great.”</p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>It’s almost noon before Miss Dean has a free moment for Victor to talk to her, considering her back to back meetings that had kept her occupied all morning long.</p>
<p>“What did you want to talk about, Victor?” she asks when he stands nervously at the threshold to her office.</p>
<p>This is the most crucial step of his plan, and he needs it to go well. If he can’t convince her to take care of this client herself, rather than sending someone else who actually typically handles this kind of thing, then everything is for naught.</p>
<p>“Miss Dean,” he says, clearing his throat as he steps into the office, trying to project the confidence he usually has when it comes to informing her of business decisions as he takes a seat in one of the chairs facing where she’s currently seated at her desk.</p>
<p>“I wanted to talk about the community outreach project,” he says, and she nods for him to continue. “I’ve found a promising candidate for a town that could benefit from the new infrastructure that the Dean Foundation can provide, and I wanted to run an idea by you that I think could be really beneficial to everyone.”</p>
<p>“I’m listening,” the blonde nods, and Victor starts to feel some of the confidence he’s been faking up until this point at the encouragement.</p>
<p>“There’s a small town nearby, just about five or six hours away, called Old Lace,” he explains, handing over the relevant files to Karolina, hoping desperately that she doesn’t ask why the page detailing the town's revenue sources is missing.</p>
<p>“The population’s quite small, but the town itself has a lot of potential, especially for tourism, and its location and proximity to the city make it a strong contender. I’ve taken the liberty to draw up some projections, and I believe that with the proper support, the town can more than double their annual income in just a year, and it’ll only increase from there.</p>
<p>“As you can see, it’s a perfect fit for the initiative, and ideally we would be able to get everything sorted out and started by the end of the year, and with the right promotional materials, this could be really good for both the town and the company image,” he explains, holding his breath as the woman in front of him slowly looks over the pages in her hands.</p>
<p>Finally, she looks up at Victor with a smile on her face, and he releases his breath as inconspicuously as he can manage. </p>
<p>“This looks promising, I think it’s an excellent choice. Thank you Victor,” she says, and he smiles at the praise, even if it’s not being given for the reason it should be. After his plan’s finished, she’ll be even more appreciative, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>“I’ll be sure to send someone down there to talk logistics within the next few days, that way we can get started as soon as possible, and hopefully have at least the beginnings in place for the new year,” she finishes, with a smile that Victor recognizes as a dismissal.</p>
<p>But his plan isn’t done. He can’t leave just yet.</p>
<p>“Actually,” he starts, and the woman’s eyes look up from where they have since focused on the computer screen in front of her, an eyebrow raised questioningly, and Victor swallows nervously.</p>
<p>“I was thinking maybe you should handle this yourself? Like go in person to sort everything out?” he suggests tentatively, and he’s surprised when his suggestion is met with an honest to god <em>laugh</em> from the blonde, something he’s only seen her do a handful of times over the three years he’s been working for her.</p>
<p>“You can’t be serious,” she says simply. “I haven’t gone out to meet potential clients since I was just starting out, and my mother insisted I work my way from the ground up through the company. I can do more from behind this desk than I ever could in person.”</p>
<p>“Well you see,” Victor continues, unphased by the attempt to shut down his suggestion as he focuses on going through the points he had written out on a whiteboard at home when coming up with convincing reasoning that isn’t simply that he thinks she’ll be happier if she gets laid. “I just think that the outreach initiative hasn’t been getting as much press as it should be. More press would mean more funding, and so we could help even more people, and isn’t that what this is really all about? If people see you going out there yourself to help out these communities, they won’t see the Dean Foundation as some faceless corporation- instead they’ll see us as something that does actual, concrete <em>good</em> in this world.”</p>
<p>“Hm,” Karolina breathes, and Victor internally fist pumps because he’s known her long enough to consider this a win. “I’ll think about what you’ve said and have an answer for you tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Miss Dean,” he says then, standing quickly and exiting the office, closing the door behind him when he leaves.</p>
<p>He knew that his boss’ affinity for helping people would convince her in the end. As much as she tries to follow in her mother’s footsteps and run the foundation much like a company, he knows she wants to help as many people as she can through the charity work they’re devoted to, and she won’t be able to say no now that she’s been presented with the opportunity to do some good firsthand.</p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>The next day, Karolina calls Victor into her office shortly after he arrives at work. </p>
<p>“Yes, Miss Dean?” he asks, stepping through the door to her office and looking at her expectantly.</p>
<p>“I’ve been considering your suggestion from yesterday,” she starts, and Victor nods, willing himself not to look too thrilled at the prospect of her agreeing as he walks over to stand in front of her desk.</p>
<p>But the blonde doesn’t continue right away, instead her face softening into a rare look of vulnerability that Victor isn’t entirely sure what to do with.</p>
<p>“You’re confident this is the right call?” she asks after a pause, almost nervously, and he’s quick to nod his head in response.</p>
<p>“Oh definitely. You’ll be helping a lot of people, and promoting the foundation as you do it,” he explains, and Karolina starts nodding along, her confidence seeming to grow.</p>
<p>“Okay yeah,” she says. “Yes. Please make the necessary arrangements for me to leave on Friday. That will give me plenty of time to finish up the current contracts I’m looking over, and then I can complete this project over the holidays.”</p>
<p>“Right away, Miss Dean,” Victor says politely, before turning and heading out of her office with a grin. Who knew he was such a mastermind? He could make one hell of a supervillain, if he ever put his mind to it.</p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, what is this?” Karolina asks Thursday morning when Victor deposits a folder containing everything she’ll need for this supposed “business trip" she’s about to be taking. She’s currently holding a small, rectangular piece of paper in her hand and waving it frantically as the boy tries to get a good look at it.</p>
<p>“Uh, that would be your train ticket, Miss,” he says, a little taken aback. He knows she grew up quite well off, but surely she knows how trains work, right?</p>
<p>“I know that,” she sighs exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why do I have one? I’m just going to take my driver.”</p>
<p>“Oh, right. Well, the town is quite small, and the roads there don’t get plowed, and after last week’s snowfall, the only way in or out is by train,” he explains, wincing sympathetically as Karolina’s eyes close as if in pain.</p>
<p>“Okay, you know what? Never mind. Just cancel the trip, would you? Or find someone else to send, it doesn’t matter,” she says, and Victor’s eyes widen as his plan starts to crumble right in front of his face. </p>
<p>“What? No!” he exclaims a little too loudly, and the blonde gives him a funny look. If anything, this whole conversation has done nothing but convince him of how much she desperately needs some holiday spirit and romcom magic, so Victor refuses to back down. “I just mean, no, don’t cancel. We’ve already notified the press, they’re looking to take some pictures of you leaving at the train station. It’ll look bad for the foundation if you cancel now.”</p>
<p>“Okay. You’re right. Of course you’re right,” she nods slowly, seemingly trying to wrap her head around the idea of taking a train to a small town with no exit except waiting for another train to come. “Thanks Victor. I’m glad you have the foundation’s best interests at heart,” she continues, and Victor just grins, before going over the details she’ll need to know about the trip one last time.</p>
<p>—————</p>
<p>Victor drives her to the train station himself the next morning, insisting that she give her driver the week off considering she won’t be back until Christmas day, and that he’ll give her a ride since he’s heading that way himself. </p>
<p>The last part is a lie of course, but he still has a final element of his plan to set in place before he can send her on her way and let the Christmas magic do its work.</p>
<p>He’s just finished helping Karolina get her suitcase out of the truck when he stops her before she can head off to board the train.</p>
<p>“I was hoping I could ask you a really small favour?” he says tentatively, pouring all the earnestness in his body into those words, and to his relief the blonde smiles back at him.</p>
<p>“Yeah, of course. What is it?”</p>
<p>“There’s this little shop in Old Lace that sells handmade Christmas ornaments? It’s called <em>Stein Ornaments</em> and I was just hoping you could grab me something special from there for me to give to my friend, Molly? It would really mean a lot to me,” he asks, hoping he’s not laying it on too thick, but also knowing he’d rather too much pleading over not enough.</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah, okay,” Karolina nods slowly. “Anything specific you want?”</p>
<p>“No, no, anything’s fine,” Victor grins, and the blonde’s brows only furrow further at that.</p>
<p>“Wait, what kind of store has the word <em>ornaments</em> in the name? What does it sell the rest of the year?” she asks, and he’s quickly motioning towards the train currently pulled up at the station, panic in his voice when he opens his mouth again.</p>
<p>“Did they just say last call? You should really get going if you don’t want to miss it!” he exclaims, and the blonde’s eyes quickly turn towards the train in question, her previous question forgotten.</p>
<p>“Okay, off you go! See you in a week!” Victor calls as she finally makes her way onto the train, climbing the steps and then disappearing from view, thankful that she hadn’t noticed the lack of promised photographers waiting for her on the platform.</p>
<p>“Well done, Mancha,” he grins to himself as he leans back on his car, watching as the train pulls out of the station a few minutes later. “Well done.”</p>
<p>His plan is well underway, and he's feeling pretty good about it. Molly clearly has no idea what she's talking about. </p>
<p>All he needs now is a little holiday magic.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Welcome to Old Lace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!</p><p>Also I am using Snowpal as the inclusive term for Snowman.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Karolina’s not entirely sure as to why she agreed to this. </p><p>Or maybe she is, and she just doesn’t want to admit it.</p><p>She <em>had</em> enjoyed helping people in person when she had first started out, meeting directly with the individuals whose lives would be changed by the work of the Dean Foundation. But her mother had always insisted her place was at the top, and she showed her how to manage the foundation from where she could do the most good- behind a desk and taking charge.</p><p>She was okay with that, she had to be. Even if playing the part of a confident business woman got tiring after keeping it up for so long.</p><p>But Victor, who has been her assistant for the last three years and has always had an impressive intuition as to what was best for the foundation, had suggested this trip, and so she had agreed, despite the voice in her head telling her to stay where she belongs behind a desk, looking at the big picture rather than just one small town, like she’s been doing ever since her parents had died three and a half years ago. </p><p>The holidays had never been great growing up, but now that she really has <em>no one</em> to celebrate with, she’s never seen the point. And besides, festive spirit is unprofessional, and she has a role to play, and responsibilities to attend to. She can’t let anything get in the way of that.</p><p>She spends the next few hours staring mindlessly out the window of the train, the landscape getting more and more rural and the snow getting impossibly deeper the farther she gets from the city.</p><p>Eventually the conductor announces that they will arrive at their destination in just under an hour, and Karolina takes the opportunity to run through the week’s itinerary in her head.</p><p>She has two days of nothing planned, considering it’s the weekend, but she had to come up early due to the train schedule. She figures she’ll just hang out in her hotel room and get some other work done, maybe take a walk and get a bit of a feel for the town before any meetings. Maybe check out that store Victor asked her to go to.</p><p>On Monday she has a meeting with the mayor, a man named Gib, in order to discuss the logistics and how the services that the Dean Foundation is willing to offer would impact the town and their economy. This is the part of the week she’s most prepared for, she knows the numbers as she’s been over the pitch a dozen times- it’s the days that follow this, the ones that Victor’s encouraged her to spend <em>engaging with the locals</em> as he put it, that make her nervous. </p><p>There will probably be more meetings scheduled over those days, assuming the pitch goes well, as she’s sure it will, but for now there aren’t any concrete plans. </p><p>And then finally, next Friday on Christmas day, she’ll be taking the train back home, and back to her job as the CEO of the Dean Foundation.</p><p>Soon, the train is pulling into a small station, not more than just a platform for boarding and disembarking, with a few benches scattered around.</p><p>It’s only Karolina and two other people getting off at this stop, though the other two seem familiar enough with the town to head off on their own, leaving the blonde standing alone and unsure as to where to go.</p><p>She eventually wanders down the street from the station and into the main part of town with the intention of finding someone to ask for directions, but the thoughts die in her head before she has a chance to follow through when she takes in the town square.</p><p>First of all, the town really is tiny. Every storefront looks privately owned, not a single recognizable chain logo in sight.</p><p>Also, it is absolutely freezing. It hadn’t been too bad on the train, and considering the fact that the town isn’t actually <em>too</em> far from the city, Karolina had assumed her standard winter attire would be acceptable. She was wrong though, because clearly when she’s not going from heated car to heated building and instead standing in a good three inches of snow in her only pair of boots, designed to be more fashionable than warm of course, it gets pretty damn cold.</p><p>But really, all that takes the backseat to what she notices next. This town is, by any definition, a Christmas town.</p><p>Every tree in sight is covered in holiday lights, reds and greens and whites twinkling back at her from everywhere she looks. There isn’t a door in the entire square that doesn’t have some sort of wreath or equivalent hanging from it, and just at a glance she can spot a half dozen snowpals scattered throughout the park in the centre, near what must be the largest Christmas tree she’s ever seen.</p><p>At a closer look, four of the stores on the street seem to be permanent Christmas themed fixtures, one of which being the <em>Stein Ornaments</em> that Victor had asked her to check out, but she’s not going to deal with that right now.</p><p>For now, all she wants is to find her hotel, check into her room, and try to wrap her head around this whole godforsaken town.</p><p>And really she wouldn’t mind a warmer coat too.</p><p>—————</p><p>It takes her a good twenty minutes to arrive at the hotel. </p><p>It hadn’t been that hard to find, considering the entire town seemed to have a total of about three non-residential streets- it was more the process of maneuvering her suitcase through three inches of snow across cobblestone paths while declining help from the half dozen people who offered it. </p><p>She runs one of the top ten foundations in the country, she can manage a suitcase on her own. </p><p>When she does finally manage to get into the hotel, she’s thoroughly chilled, and her feet are soaked and very near numb. </p><p>“Hi,” she says as she approaches the front desk, doing her best to balance in her heeled boots with next to no feeling in her toes. “I have a room booked under Karolina Dean.”</p><p>A dark haired boy in glasses stands behind the counter, a smile on his face as he flips through the pages in a book, and it takes the girl a few seconds to realize that that’s where the bookings are recorded. </p><p>Because <em>of course</em> the hotel she’s staying at doesn’t even have a computer. </p><p>Though the more she looks around the place, the more she realizes that it’s not a hotel at all- it’s more of a little inn, that most would probably find cozy but that overall just screams unprofessional. Karolina definitely needs to have a talk with Victor about properly discussing her accommodations with her the next time she has to take a trip. </p><p>“Alright Ma’am, you’re in room five,” the boy, whose name tag reads <em>Alex</em>, tells her happily, handing over an actual key rather than the keycards she’s become so accustomed to when booking a room somewhere. “I’ll be out here if you need anything, have a great stay!”</p><p>Nodding curtly, the blonde accepts the key and makes her way down the single hallway, stopping when she reaches a room with a silver <em>5</em> on the door, surrounded by a Christmas wreath. </p><p>Sighing, she turns the key and swings the door open, only to be met with more Christmas than she’d ever want in her life, let alone in her hotel room.</p><p>There are Christmas decorations covering every possible surface, ranging from beyond tacky to almost acceptable if it weren’t for the sheer number of them. A snowpal bauble stands on the bedside table, next to an alarm clock with Santa’s face printed across it, and the teddy bears wearing hats and scarves lining the dresser aren’t any better.</p><p>She wheels her snow-covered suitcase over to an empty space beside the bed- a bed covered in blankets featuring reindeer and mistletoe of course- praying that the icy dampness the snow had caused is only on the outside and has not seeped into her expensive clothing stored inside.</p><p>She’s not so lucky, as she finds out a few minutes later as she’s laying out nearly every piece of clothing she brought to dry, hoping that the damage won’t be too severe, but knowing that almost every case is a lost cause. </p><p>Considering she now has about two outfits worth of wearable clothes, no good boots, and a coat that doesn’t seem to have any lining whatsoever as far as she can tell and so provides no warmth at all, Karolina resigns herself to the fact that she’s going to have to buy some new clothes sometime soon.</p><p>Not right now of course, as it’s mid-afternoon and the low-quality circulated air of the train has left her exhausted, she decides as she drops the majority of the Christmas decorations into one of the empty drawers of the dresser, changes into her only pair of dry pyjamas, and settles under the mistletoe blanket with her laptop perched on her knees to get at least <em>some</em> work done and have today at least slightly resemble something productive.</p><p>She ends up ordering dinner in, rather than braving the outside world, and when she finally falls asleep that night, it’s to the muffled sound of Christmas carols coming from the hotel lobby, much to her displeasure.</p><p>—————</p><p>Karolina wakes up early the next morning, groaning as she pulls the blankets over her head in an attempt to block out the sunlight streaming through the window, despite the fact that the curtains are closed, and the laughter that can be heard from outside.</p><p>It’s barely six in the morning, and though she usually wakes up just a half hour later to be ready to be at the office by eight, she hadn’t managed to sleep all that well on the small mattress with the cold seeping in even through her many blankets.</p><p>She shivers, climbing out of bed and resigning herself to being awake, and after slowly making her way through her standard morning routine as best she can despite the subpar water pressure of the shower and the insistent chill that seems to refuse to leave the air despite the fact that the heating system is on, she gets dressed in her warmest clothes, which really aren’t all that warm, and reluctantly makes her way into the main room of the hotel where breakfast is being served.</p><p>It’s exactly the kind of meal she would expect from a place like this, with large communal tables and rowdy laughter and Christmas carols being sung despite how early in the morning it is, and she does her best to not let her disapproval show as she tentatively takes two pancakes onto her plate, deciding not to partake in the copious amounts of maple syrup everyone else seems to be pouring on top of their own servings.</p><p>She thanks the staff as she’s expected to do, as surely they’re just doing their jobs and it’s not their fault that everything is so woefully festive, and she’s just leaving when she hears someone call her name.</p><p>“Karolina, hey,” the boy from earlier, Alex, says, coming out from behind the counter with something red and green and entirely too Christmas-y bundled in his arms. “You’re not going out like that, are you?”</p><p>“Excuse me?” the blonde asks, looking down at her outfit. Sure, they aren’t her nicest clothes, those are all currently drying into warped heaps that no longer function as clothing in her hotel room as they speak, but she’s dressed far nicer than any of the other patrons of the hotel, who are wearing predominantly jeans and flannel or even honest-to-god ugly Christmas sweaters in some cases.</p><p>“No, sorry, you look great, I just meant that it snowed last night. Like, a lot, even by our standards, and it looks like it’ll snow again soon. You’re going to freeze out there like that,” he explains, a slight smirk on his face, and Karolina can feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. She probably looks like a fool, not knowing how to dress for the weather, and she doesn’t appreciate it.</p><p>“Oh. Right, of course,” she manages, keeping her voice steady as she responds. “I was planning on stopping at one of the stores and picking up something warmer today, actually.”</p><p>“Well, you’re still going to be cold on your way there,” Alex grins, holding out the bundle in his arms in such a way that Karolina now realizes that it is a coat. A coat patterned with the most horrendous Christmas pattern she has ever seen, red and green striped and covered in snowpals and Christmas trees, and generally looking like something she wouldn’t be caught dead in.</p><p>She’s just about to thank him as politely as she can, refuse his offer, and head out of the hotel, when she catches a glimpse of the weather outside through a window. The snow piled on the ground has almost doubled overnight, and the wind seems to have picked up if the momentum of the snowflakes swirling through the air is any indication.</p><p>Sighing resignedly, her jaw clenches as she takes the coat from the boy’s outstretched hands, slipping her arms through the sleeves and pulling the zipper up to her chin.</p><p>“Thank you,” she nods curtly. “I’ll have it back by tonight.” And then she’s out the door before he can respond, her still damp boots chilling her feet yet again as she steps out into the snow, trudging in the direction of what seems to be the town’s only winter apparel store, so that she won’t have to show up to her meeting on Monday looking like one of Santa’s elves.</p><p>—————</p><p>The store is small, and inexplicably out of winter coats. Apparently the recent snowfall had all the residents coming out to buy new coats or some other flimsy excuse she got when she maybe got a <em>little</em> impatient with the sales clerk. </p><p>In any case, at the very least she managed to get boots, plain black and warm enough that she actually has some feeling in her toes again, and a hat, red and a little ridiculous-looking but still warm, so the trip wasn’t a total bust. Even if she’s still wearing that god-awful coat.</p><p>It’s somehow almost noon by the time she leaves the store and finds herself in the centre square again, somehow even more festive now that dozens of people are occupying it, throwing snowballs and drinking hot chocolate, and generally looking like a scene out of any one of those movies that Victor’s always going on about and that Karolina refuses to watch on principle.</p><p>With cold fingers she pulls out her phone and finally responds to Victor’s fifth text of the morning, asking her if her trip is magical yet, whatever that means, by telling him that she’s fine and she’ll text when she has an update for him about the foundation.</p><p>She wanders around the town idly after that, hands shoved deep into the pockets of her ugly coat because she hadn’t thought to buy gloves, and as she trudges through the deep snow in her new boots, she takes in the town around her.</p><p>While some of the buildings are bustling with customers, such as the pizza joint on the corner and inexplicably the ice cream shop in the centre of the row, there are a few with very little activity, and even a couple that are boarded up and listed as <em>for rent</em>. </p><p>Despite the fact that she’s pretty sure Victor tricked her into coming here for his own strange, festive reasons, she does have to admit that the town is just quaint enough and yet close enough to the city that with a bit of funding and repairs, the natural charm would be enough to start attracting tourists and greatly improve the local economy.</p><p>Eventually she exhausts the information available through slowly pacing up and down the few commercial streets of the town, and the next step in collecting the details she’ll need for her meeting on Monday is talking to shop owners themselves - individuals who she’s sure are just as wrapped up in the holiday spirit as the decorations on their storefronts would suggest.</p><p>Shoving her hands deeper into her pockets, she glances between the stores before eventually heading towards the one with the handcrafted wooden lettering reading <em>Stein Ornaments</em> hanging above it.</p><p>Might as well start with that one. This way she can get two birds with one stone, what with Victor’s strange request of her picking up literally anything from the store for him, and also finding out a little more about the people in this town who the outreach initiative will affect should they go through with it.</p><p>The bell above the door chimes as Karolina enters, sounding suspiciously like jingle bells (the actual bells, not the song), and she doesn’t even bother looking up to confirm her suspicions- one look at the rest of the store and that question’s been more than answered for her.</p><p>The storeroom is filled with real Christmas trees, along with shelves and shelves of hooks, and from nearly every branch and nearly every display hook, hangs a handcrafted wooden ornament.</p><p>She’s no expert on woodworking, but even just a quick look around the store as she wanders aimlessly through the aisles and between Christmas trees is enough for her to be able to tell that these are high quality, handcrafted ornaments, and could be sold for well above the price marked on their tags, assuming that people were actually in the market for something as foolish as pieces of wood to hang on a tree for no reason.</p><p>She’s startled out of her browsing when a boy no more than a year or two older than her comes out from the back room of the shop and takes his place behind the cash register, whittling away at what looks to be a wooden reindeer as he whistles along to the holiday songs playing on the speakers.</p><p>“Hello,” Karolina says as she steps up to the counter, and the boy turns to her with a charming smile, placing his half finished reindeer down on the counter and giving her his full attention.</p><p>“Hi there, Miss. What can I help you with?” he says in a friendly way, projecting that genuine, smalltown vibe that she’s been getting from nearly everything and everyone since arriving.</p><p>“My name is Karolina Dean, of the Dean Foundation. We’re looking into partnering with your community as part of our outreach program, and I was hoping to ask you a few questions,” she says, straight to business, and the boy seems a little surprised that she’s not fallen for his charming ways and boyish grin yet.</p><p>He’s handsome, she knows enough to recognize that, a kind face and nice eyes, his hair messy on top of his head in sort of a rugged, outdoorsy way, and she can see the lines of his muscles even through the thick red sweater he’s wearing. He vaguely reminds her of the man in a trailer to one of those Christmas movies Victor tried to show her before she sternly dismissed him for the day, with instructions not to show her any more silly movie trailers at work.</p><p>He has no effect on her, of course, what with her being an out and proud lesbian.</p><p>Or, at least proud. She’s certain she would be out, if only she had someone to come out to, but considering the fact that randomly coming out to her employees is a strange thing to do unprompted, and whatever short relationships she’s entertained in the past have always been with girls who have enough discretion not to broadcast the fact that they’ve been sleeping together, she’s not sure if it counts.</p><p>There isn’t much room for friends in her life when she’s busy running a foundation on her own. </p><p>In any case, the conversation remains professional, and to her surprise she does learn some valuable information that will definitely help with reviving the local economy, even if there are a few too many mentions of the holiday spirit and Christmas magic for her liking.</p><p>“Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Stein,” Karolina says shaking the boy’s hand politely, and he grins in response. </p><p>“Not at all, the pleasure was mine, Miss Dean,” he responds in kind, and she offers him a small smile as she turns and heads out the door, already turning over the newfound information in her head.</p><p>She’s no more than ten steps out the door when she remembers that she didn’t accomplish one of the two tasks she had gone inside for in the first place, and with a sigh she turns around and heads back through the door.</p><p>Walking up to the counter, she grabs a random ornament off the closest display case, putting it down on the counter and pulling her wallet out of her purse.</p><p>Chase turns around at the noise, grinning when he sees her.</p><p>“Ah, Miss Dean. I didn’t think you’d be back so soon, though I can’t say I’m disappointed,” he flirts, and Karolina has to suppress an eyeroll.</p><p>“Yes, well, my assistant wanted me to pick up an ornament for him, so,” she says curtly, gesturing towards the piece of wood in question, carved to look like a little Christmas tree.</p><p>He quickly rings her order through, and just as she’s about to leave, he speaks up again.</p><p>“You wouldn’t be interested in getting dinner with me sometime, by any chance, would you?” he asks, earnest hopefulness in his eyes. “I could show you around town maybe? Help you out with your project?”</p><p>“Thank you for the offer, but you’re not exactly my type,” she responds shortly. “Not every city girl who comes into this little town of yours is looking for a man,” she finishes, before turning on her heel and leaving the store as fast as she can, but not before catching a look of dawning realization on the boy’s face.</p><p>She’s only ten steps away when she’s interrupted yet again, though this time it’s not by her own thoughts, but rather someone else’s.</p><p>“Hey, Miss Dean,” Chase calls as he jogs out of the store, and she stills, unsure as to what he could want.</p><p>“Mr. Stein,” she nods, and he gives her a sheepish smile.</p><p>“I’m really sorry, clearly I read that whole conversation completely wrong. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable,” he tells her sincerely, and Karolina softens just a little bit.</p><p>“Thank you for the apology,” she says, surprised to find that she really means it. He seems like a nice boy, if a little clueless. </p><p>He nods once then heads back into his store, and Karolina stops for lunch at the sandwich shop next door, before continuing her interviews with the town’s business owners, talking to a decent number of them and collecting valuable information before returning to the hotel.</p><p>—————</p><p>She enters the hotel lobby to find it much quieter than it had been when she had left this morning. Gone are the excited crowds of patrons loudly eating and laughing together, mouths full of pancakes and maple syrup, replaced by just a few people reading books or newspapers.</p><p>One girl in particular catches her eye the moment she crosses the threshold though. She’s sitting in the back corner of the lounge area all alone, hunched over a laptop and typing furiously at the keys, and Karolina’s certain that she only noticed her immediately due to the fact that she’s not just the sole person in this town who seems to own a computer, but she’s also the first person she’s seen to not be decked out in at least <em>some</em> sort of Christmas-inspired paraphernalia.</p><p>Instead, she’s dressed all in black, a heavy black coat draped across her shoulders despite the fact that it is marginally heated in here, her dark makeup complimenting her outfit and perfectly accentuating her entirely too gorgeous face.</p><p>Not that Karolina really notices how pretty she is, of course. It’s just that she’s objectively stunning, she’s not <em>attracted</em> to her, she can’t be, not when they come from different worlds. Not when Karolina’s all board meetings and financial decisions that affect thousands of people and this girl is all small town Christmas.</p><p>She’s just about to get her feet to start moving again and head straight for her room when the girl in question looks up, her eyes connecting with the blonde’s instantly, and in a way that Karolina just knows that it was obvious that she had been staring.</p><p>The girl’s eyebrow raises as the blonde feels a blush spread across her cheeks and down her neck- a blush that only intensifies when she realizes that she’s still wearing the hideous coat she had received from Alex earlier, and she rushes to unzip it and pull it off her body as fast as possible.</p><p>The girl smirks as Karolina manages to get caught up in the sleeves as she removes it, but before she can come up with a way to salvage this strange interaction, the girl’s eyes are back on the screen in front of her again and her fingers are flying across the keyboard at lightning speed.</p><p>Willing her face to return to a normal colour and stop blending in with the bright red Christmas decorations all around the room, the blonde steps towards the front desk and Alex looks up at her approach.</p><p>“You manage to get a new coat?” he asks, as she holds out the monstrosity towards him.</p><p>“Unfortunately no,” she replies, thankful that at least her voice is cooperating, even if the rest of her body isn’t. “They were all sold out.”</p><p>“Well that sucks,” the boy continues, still making no move to collect the offered coat in question. “You’re here until Christmas, right?”</p><p>“Um, yes,” Karolina answers, unsure as to why she’s being asked this. </p><p>“Hang onto it until then,” he offers. “It’s only going to get colder, and it’s unlikely we’ll be getting any more stock before then. Just return it when you check out.”</p><p>The blonde looks down at the coat in her hands with a barely concealed grimace, but lowers her outstretched arms to hold the coat to her chest. It may be ugly as hell, but it is warm, and if it really is going to get colder, she’d rather not freeze to death in this cheerful little hellhole.</p><p>“Alright, thank you,” she tells him sincerely, because he is offering her a kindness she wasn’t expecting, even if that kindness has to come in such an ugly form.</p><p>As confidently as she can, and ignoring the way she can feel the girl’s eyes follow her as she walks, she makes her way down the hall and towards her room, turning the key and finally collapsing in bed.</p><p>She spends the rest of the evening with the thoughts of the random, smalltown girl she’s never even spoken to, and the undeserved kindness of strangers bouncing around her head until she’s too confused and exhausted to think anymore.</p><p>When she finally falls asleep, a tiny, miniscule, <em>microscopic</em> part of her might hate the godforsaken Christmas-themed town of Old Lace just a little bit less, despite her best efforts.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Nico</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!</p><p>Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to any and all who celebrate!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Karolina doesn’t leave the hotel the next day.</p><p>It’s Sunday, and she tells herself she doesn’t want to bother any more business owners with questions until she knows that the initiative will go through, even if she knows that’s not the real reason.</p><p>She doesn’t want to be here, in this stupid town, with its stupid residents who treat her more like a friend than anyone she’s spoken to in the last three years combined, other than Victor and maybe that intern Molly, but she always pushes them away, distances herself. She’s the boss, after all. It has to be that way.</p><p>So she spends Sunday ostensibly catching up on work she isn’t actually behind on, going over all the reasons that she hates this little town, and all the ways she’s better off back home, where she can make a difference and run the foundation just like her parents had always wanted for her.</p><p>By the time she goes to bed that night, she almost believes it.</p><p>—————</p><p>Monday morning she’s back to normal, as if she hadn’t been questioning all of her major life decisions less than twelve hours ago. She has a job to do now, responsibilities that she can’t let her over-tired brain’s addled thoughts from her lapse in judgement the night before interfere with. She can’t afford to continue with that line of thinking, because no matter what conclusion she comes to, it won’t make a difference. What would her mother say if she lets this impact her work?</p><p>And just like that, after a quick breakfast at the hotel and a morning of going over her notes for the meeting, Karolina’s heading to the town’s pizza joint to meet the mayor, Gib, and discuss the future of the town of Old Lace’s potential partnership with the Dean Foundation’s outreach program.</p><p>“Hello, and welcome to Topher’s,” a teenage girl with dark hair and a flower print dress on under her work apron says when she enters the modest building, the smells of cheese and dough and various pizza toppings wafting in from the kitchen and filling the whole restaurant with a different, cozier sort of warmth than anything she’s used to. </p><p>A very welcome sort of warmth considering the fact that she had opted to leave her horrendous, borrowed coat at the hotel in order to start the meeting with a good impression, but with the way the snow seems to have gotten impossibly deeper yet again, and with how the tips of her toes are once more losing feeling even after just the short walk over, she’s starting regret it.</p><p>“You must be Miss Dean! We’ve been expecting you, right this way please,” the girl finishes, as she turns and leads the blonde towards a small booth in the back.</p><p>“Thank you,” Karolina says with a smile as she takes a seat at the table, already reflecting on the fact that this is definitely the most unprofessional meeting locale she has ever conducted business in. To be fair though, considering the size of the town and the apparent lack of an official town hall, it’s not like there were many other options.</p><p>Ten minutes later and right on time, Gib shows up, a towering man made almost entirely of muscle as far as she can tell but with the friendliest smile she’s ever seen, and it’s not long before he’s seated comfortably across from the blonde and the two of them are exchanging pleasantries.</p><p>Just as Karolina’s about to bring up the outreach project and the whole reason for the meeting in the first place, the doors to the kitchen swing open and out steps a boy who looks to be a couple years younger than her twenty-five, hair slicked back and a gold eyebrow piercing above his eye.</p><p>“Mayor Gib, Miss Dean,” he says politely, standing in front of them with his hands clasped together. “It’s a pleasure to have you here. My name is Topher and I am the head chef and owner of this fine establishment. And may I just say that it is very nice to meet you, Miss Dean.”</p><p>“You too,” she responds, shaking the offered hand. “This is quite the impressive place you have here, especially for someone so young,” she adds sincerely.</p><p>“You’re one to talk,” he grins in response. “And besides, I’m older than I look.”</p><p>And with that, he returns to the kitchen and moments later the young girl who had first greeted Karolina is taking their orders.</p><p>—————</p><p>“It’s been a pleasure talking to you, Mayor Gib,” Karolina says as the lunch meeting reaches its conclusion. </p><p>“You as well, Karolina,” he responds in his deep, booming voice, and the blonde tries to stifle her immediate reaction to the unprofessionalism of him using her first name. </p><p>“Thank you for your time,” she adds curtly as she stands from the table, gathering her messenger bag containing her laptop from the seat next to her and looping the strap over her shoulder. “I’ll be in touch soon and we can set up another meeting to start scheduling everything.”</p><p>“Of course,” Mayor Gib grins, but his smile falls as the blonde turns to make her way towards the door. “Karolina?” he calls, and she turns to face him, taking a breath to school the annoyance from her features. </p><p>She really just wants to get home. Or at least back to her hotel room, since she has resigned herself to not being able to leave for a while still. </p><p>“Yes?” </p><p>“You’re not leaving right now, are you?” he asks, and the blonde takes a few steps back towards the table he’s still seated at. </p><p>“I’m sorry, was there more you wanted to discuss?” she asks as she moves to sit down again, but stops when she hears his response. </p><p>“No, nothing like that! You’ve been quite thorough. It’s just… there’s a blizzard outside and you don’t seem to have a coat,” he explains, and Karolina’s head snaps towards the windows. </p><p>Sure enough, there’s snow flying in every direction, large flakes that have passed the point of being fluffy and are halfway to ice pellets, the wind blowing so hard that the trees shudder violently against it. </p><p>It looks terrible, and is precisely why Karolina much prefers to spend this time of year solely at home or in the office, with as little time travelling between the two as possible. </p><p>But really, what choice does she have? She needs to get to work writing down the information from the meeting. She finds it distracting to take notes while she talks to clients, so she’s taken to writing everything down immediately afterwards so she can devote her full attention to her conversations while she’s having them. Which of course means she has about twenty minutes before she’ll start worrying about forgetting the details, and start obsessively running through the interview in her head to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything, to the point where it’s the only thing she’s thought about for days. </p><p>It’s happened before, as Victor is more than happy to remind her on a semi-regular basis. </p><p>In any case, she needs to get back to the hotel, write this all out, and then in all honesty probably take a long bath and then a nap. </p><p>“That’s quite alright,” Karolina smiles at the man in front of her. “I’ll be fine.”</p><p>She turns on her heel before he has a chance to object, and makes her way out of the warmth of the pizza joint and out into the snow. </p><p>It takes her all of ten seconds to realize that she is most certainly not fine, by any definition of the word. </p><p>It has to be at least twenty degrees Celsius below freezing, and the air is so cold that it physically hurts even after just a few seconds. It’s not long until the tips of her ears are starting to go numb along with her fingers, despite the way her arms are wrapped tightly around herself for warmth. </p><p>She’s only two steps from the door but Karolina already knows that there’s no way she’s getting back to the hotel in this weather. </p><p>She’s just about to turn around and head right back inside but she hesitates. Mayor Gib will probably want to talk more, and she’s really not looking for any more pointless small talk right now. And as if that wasn’t enough, going back in after ignoring the warning and insisting that she’ll be fine in the snow will be more than a little embarrassing, and admitting any defeat, even on something that small, won’t be a good look for her or the Dean Foundation. Her mother would not be impressed. </p><p>So, of course, Karolina does the only thing she can do. </p><p>Wrapping her arms even tighter around herself, she trudges further down the street, staying as close to the storefronts as possible in an effort to make use of what little shelter the awnings provide from the snow overhead. </p><p>It only takes a minute before she finds herself in front of the neighbouring store, but despite the short amount of time she is well and thoroughly chilled. </p><p>Shivering, she reaches for the door handle, pausing when she notices the <em>for rent</em> sign in the window, because <em>great</em>. Assuming this place is even unlocked, she’s going to have to either weather this storm alone in an abandoned shop, or brave the snow again to head to the next store down the row and hope she has better luck there. </p><p>And based on the way her teeth are currently chattering, Karolina knows it’s not really much of a choice at all. </p><p>The handle turns easily under her frozen fingertips, and then she’s spilling into the building, closing the door quickly behind her and rubbing her fingers together in the relative warmth to try and regain some feeling in them. </p><p>The room is dimly lit by what little light is pouring in through the half-boarded windows, and once Karolina’s fingers have recovered enough that she’s no longer concerned with frostbite, she takes a moment to look around. </p><p>She’s clearly standing in the entrance of what was once the showroom of this old store, though the general wear of what little furniture remains gives the impression that it hasn’t been used as such in years. An antique-looking desk stands against one wall, and there’s a couch in the back corner of the room, but otherwise it is sparsely decorated, only a few abandoned candles sitting on various dust-covered surfaces, the odd cobweb hanging from the ceiling or tucked into a corner. </p><p>It’s by far not the ideal place to hide out, and definitely not where Karolina wants to be, but at this point she’ll take whatever she can get. Though she does make a mental note to never listen to Victor ever again. </p><p>She takes a few steps further into the building, and she’s just about to pull her laptop from her bag so she can get to work on typing up her notes from the meeting when she hears a creak coming from the second floor of the building. </p><p>She freezes, and she has about halfway decided to just turn around and head back outside, snowstorm be damned, when she hears quick footsteps make their way down the staircase in the back corner of the room. </p><p>Before she can react, a young woman around her age has reached the bottom of the steps and is staring at her with an all too familiar raise of her eyebrow, an amused expression playing at her lips. </p><p>Karolina can feel her cheeks heat up as the realization that this is the girl from the other night hits her, and despite her valiant attempt to not let it show, she’s sure the other girl notices her reaction. </p><p>“Hi there,” the girl in question says, turning to face the blonde more directly but making no move to approach. </p><p>She’s just as pretty as she was the last time Karolina saw her, this time less bundled up for the outdoors, dressed in only plain black jeans and a grey sweater, but it’s the confidence she so effortlessly projects that has the blonde suddenly feeling nervous. </p><p>“Uh, hello,” she manages after a pause, her voice a good octave higher than usual, and she clears her throat quickly, though the widening smirk across the girl’s face makes her think it wasn’t as subtle as she had hoped. </p><p>“Can I help you?” the girl asks then, finally moving from her place by the stairs to make her way towards Karolina, and the blonde notices for the first time that she’s a good half a foot taller than the other girl. </p><p>Snapping herself out of whatever it was exactly that this girl seems to bring out in her, she ignores the question and instead sticks her hand out in front of her for the girl to shake. </p><p>“I’m Karolina Dean, head of the Dean Foundation,” she states, waiting for a reaction that never comes. “I’m here on behalf of our community outreach program, to talk logistics and to get a feel for the town.”</p><p>“Okay,” the girl in front of her responds, and Karolina’s slightly taken aback by the indifference across her face at the introduction as she drops her outstretched hand as smoothly as possible. </p><p>“And you are?” the blonde tries, trying not to fidget as the girl regards her with her arms crossed, and she can’t help but feel that she’s being assessed. </p><p>“Nico,” the girl says after an inexplicably nerve-wracking silence, and Karolina’s at a complete loss as to how this nobody smalltown girl somehow seems to hold all the power in this conversation, despite the fact that Karolina herself is a CEO with a net worth of enough to buy this entire town and barely make a dent in her bank account. </p><p>“Okay, well, I should go then. I only came in because of the snow. But I think it’s letting up so I’m just going to go,” the blonde rambles, vaguely gesturing to the least boarded window, through which anyone could clearly see the extent to which the snow had emphatically <em>not</em> let up in any way, shape, or form. If anything the wind is howling louder than it had been when Karolina had first arrived, but really she needs to get out of here because this girl seems to be turning her back into the nervous, awkward version of herself she had spent so long getting rid of when she first inherited the foundation. </p><p>She’s turned around and halfway to the door when Nico speaks up again, stopping Karolina in her tracks. </p><p>“You can stay,” she says simply, and the blonde turns back around to face her. </p><p>“What?” she asks, mentally scolding herself for her sudden inability to articulate properly. </p><p>“I’m not sending you out into a blizzard without a coat,” Nico shrugs, a small laugh escaping her lips that Karolina tries really hard not to find endearing. </p><p>“I have a coat,” the blonde defends automatically, though she’s not sure what she’s trying to prove. “I left it at the hotel.”</p><p>“Good call,” the shorter girl smirks, and Karolina can feel her cheeks heat up <em>yet again</em>. How she can handle leading crowded, high stakes board meetings but not talking to this one girl, she’s not entirely sure. </p><p>“Okay, it was maybe not the best decision. But in my defence the coat is not actually mine, and also it’s... really ugly,” she finishes, realizing just how weak her stance in this argument is, but Nico laughs and maybe it’s okay. </p><p>“Fair enough,” she nods, the slight smile not leaving her face. “Well, it’ll probably be a while until the snow lets up, so make yourself comfortable I guess,” she adds, motioning towards the nearby couch. </p><p>“Oh, no. That’s fine. I don’t want to intrude on your…” she says quickly, trailing off as she realizes that she’s not entirely sure what exactly Nico’s doing in an abandoned store in the middle of a blizzard. “Sorry, what are you doing here?”</p><p>“It’s fine,” the shorter girl dismisses easily. “And I live upstairs actually. I work down here sometimes though. It helps me think.”</p><p>“You live above a boarded up shop?” Karolina says before she can think better of it, but thankfully Nico laughs in response. </p><p>“The rent’s cheap,” she shrugs. “Anyways I should get to work, but it’s cool if you hang out here until the weather’s less deadly.”</p><p>And then she’s walking over to the desk against the wall, pulling the laptop she had with her the first time Karolina saw her out of the drawer, and sitting down. </p><p>The blonde stares at her for a few seconds, her fingers flying across the keyboard just as fast as they had been the other night, before pulling her gaze away. </p><p>This is definitely… not the <em>ideal</em> situation, but at least she should be able to get some work done while she waits for the storm to let up. </p><p>And so, ignoring the unprofessional mess her trip has seemingly turned into, Karolina makes her way to the couch and pulls out her own laptop. </p><p>Surprisingly, she actually does manage to get a fair amount of work done over the next two hours, Nico’s constant, quiet presence providing a level of comfort that she hasn’t felt in a long time, even if she refuses to acknowledge this fact. </p><p>She’s just finished emailing her initial report back to Victor when she feels a dip in the couch beside her, and she turns to find Nico sitting next to her, an easy smile on her face as their eyes meet. </p><p>“Finished your work?” the shorter girl asks her, and Karolina pulls her attention away from her laptop. </p><p>Karolina swallows, unsure of what she should say as the shorter girl regards her expectantly, but something about Nico makes her not want to dismiss her as she would anyone else who tried to interrupt her work. So, as uncharted as the territory is, she resolves to try to make small talk. </p><p>“For now, yes,” she nods. “My next two days are pretty full of meetings though. There’s still a lot of information I need to gather about this town for the project.”</p><p>“Aw, that sucks,” the shorter girl nods sympathetically, and Karolina doesn’t bother explaining that she would much rather a day full of meetings than another day of aimlessly wandering this small town. </p><p>“How about you?” she asks instead. </p><p>“Not even close,” Nico smirks, elaborating when the blonde looks at her expectantly. “I’m a writer. Or at least I’m trying to be. I’m still working on my second book.”</p><p>“You’re published?” Karolina asks, not even considering masking the shock in her voice until it’s too late, and she can feel her cheeks darken as the other girl raises an eyebrow in response.</p><p>“I am. You know, just because I live in a small town, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to do something with my life.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” the blonde tries to correct quickly, realizing her mistake, but Nico cuts her off with a laugh and a hand on her arm. If the latter results in a sudden increase in her heart rate, Karolina quickly adds that to the rapidly growing list of things she is refusing to acknowledge. </p><p>“It’s fine, I’m just messing with you. Mostly,” Nico grins, and the taller girl feels an inexplicable and completely unexpected sense of relief at the fact that she’s not upset by her complete inability to hold a regular conversation. She then quickly rationalizes the feeling as her not wanting to make an enemy of the community she’s trying to partner with, and promptly ignores it as well. </p><p>“Anyways, it looks like the weather’s finally calming down,” the black-haired girl continues, gesturing outside as she stands from where she was seated on the couch. “And just in time too!”</p><p>It takes the blonde a moment to catch onto what the girl is saying, but when she does, she snaps her laptop shut and stands abruptly from the couch.</p><p>“I’m so sorry,” she says quickly, the jumbled string of words falling from her lips before she has time to think anything through. “I really didn’t mean to overstay my welcome, I just got caught up in my work, and it was nice being in the same room as you, and I just- I’m sorry, I’m just going to go now, thank you for letting me stay here.”</p><p>She starts towards the door, her laptop now secure in her bag hanging from her shoulder, when a tentative hand catches her wrist, releasing as soon as she turns around to face Nico again.</p><p>She ignores how her skin burns from the contact- it’s probably just because it’s still a little cold in the shop, and the girl’s hand is pleasantly warm. </p><p>“No, no that’s not what I meant,” the shorter girl reassures her quickly, a smirk playing at her lips. “That’s not what I meant at all.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“You’re here to get to know the town, right?” she asks, and Karolina nods. “Well, I was thinking I could show you around, if you wanted, now that the snow’s calmed down a bit. What better way to learn about the town than from someone who’s lived here their whole life?”</p><p>“Oh,” the blonde says again, trying to figure out the best way to let Nico down easy so she can head back to her hotel room and have some time to herself. She’s just about to open her mouth to make up some excuse, when she realizes that for the first time in a long time, she doesn’t want to.</p><p>Spending some time with the woman in front of her and getting some more information about the town in the process doesn’t exactly sound like a bad way to spend the rest of her day.</p><p>“Okay, yes. That sounds good,” Karolina nods, and Nico practically grins in response, before her gaze suddenly flits over the blonde’s body curiously.</p><p>“You don’t have a coat though,” she states, pausing for a second before taking a few steps backwards and towards the stairs. “I should have an extra, wait right here. I’ll be back in a minute.”</p><p>—————</p><p>Karolina shivers against the harsh winter air as she trudges through the snow alongside Nico, though the cold isn’t nearly as horrible this time around. The wind has died down drastically, the sun has come out from behind the clouds, and the snow in the air has been limited to a light sprinkling.</p><p>The coat the girl had given her is, unsurprisingly, black, much like the rest of Nico’s ensembles seem to be, and that fact alone has Karolina already liking it much more than the dreadful Christmas monstrosity currently waiting for her back in her hotel room.</p><p>“We’re almost there,” the girl next to her says, her black winter hat pulled far down over her ears, and Karolina nods her acknowledgement, despite the fact that this is the fifth time that Nico has insisted that they were getting close.</p><p>After a few more minutes of walking, they do finally arrive, much to the blonde’s relief. </p><p>“Here we are,” the shorter girl announces proudly, her breath visible in the frigid air as she speaks. “Leapfrog Lake.”</p><p>It takes the blonde a few moments to fully take in their new surroundings, but once she does she’s at a loss for words. </p><p>In front of them is a large lake, frozen over with a sheet of ice that Karolina does not trust for skating but that catches the sun in a way that she’s only ever seen in photographs. Snowbanks created by the most recent snowfall cover… well, they cover pretty much everything, and the glittering white of the untouched snow reflecting the sun makes everything look almost ethereal. Overall, this entire place looks as if it were taken right out of a postcard, and the blonde’s mind is already racing with how this could be used as part of the marketing campaign to encourage tourists to visit- she’s of course going to maintain the natural environment, and not industrialize everything like those large companies the Dean Foundation is always competing with do. </p><p>“Wow…” she breathes, and Nico grins like getting this reaction out of Karolina is some sort of prize, and the blonde knows she would be blushing right now if it weren’t for the fact that her cheeks are already flushed pink from the cold. </p><p>“Pretty cool, right?” the girl asks, and Karolina can only nod in agreement. “This is my favourite place to come in the winter.”</p><p>“I can see why,” the blonde responds when she finally finds her voice again. “It’s beautiful.”</p><p>To her surprise, the two of them quickly lose track of time, wandering down the snow-covered path leading around the edge of the frozen lake before eventually turning back. The conversation starts out with Nico explaining the history of the town, including everything from unsubstantiated urban legends about dinosaurs, to the many (mostly Christmas-centric) traditions that have been established over the years by the community, but eventually they're just talking about whatever comes to mind in a way that Karolina's never really had but that is undeniably comfortable and nice. </p><p>And if they walk side by side slightly closer than strictly necessary, that’s just because it’s so cold out. </p><p>—————</p><p>Overall, the entire outing is incredibly useful for the report Karolina’s working on about the town for the outreach program, but somehow by the time Nico offers to walk her back to her hotel when evening falls, the Dean Foundation is the last thing on the blonde’s mind. </p><p>“Thank you, Nico,” she says sincerely when they come to a stop in front of the hotel.</p><p>“For what?”</p><p>A pause. What is she thanking her for? For a tour of the town to help her with work? For making her feel like she’s not quite so alone for once? For giving her the chance to be herself when she feels like the only thing she knows how to be anymore is anything but?</p><p>“For… today,” she settles on, and Nico smiles. </p><p>“Of course, anytime,” the shorter girl tells her genuinely, and Karolina freezes as the girl is suddenly leaning up to press a quick, chaste kiss to the blonde’s cold cheek, her heart suddenly jumping into her throat. </p><p>“Uh huh,” she responds quickly, her voice an octave higher than usual as her cheeks become impossibly pinker. </p><p>And then Nico’s grinning, her face still impossibly close to Karolina’s as she starts to pull away, and in a moment of either impossible bravery or stupidity (though thinking back on this moment later, she’s quite convinced it’s the latter), the blonde leans forward and connects their lips in a kiss that’s as short as it is sweet. It’s just a soft meeting of lips that leaves them both short of breath and wanting more, but Karolina breaks it off before it can go any further. </p><p>And then she’s turning on her heel and rushing through the front doors of the hotel, heading straight to her room without so much as a glance over her shoulder. </p><p>She collapses on top of her bed immediately, burying her face in the pillows as she tries to calm her racing heart. </p><p>So. <em>That was dumb.</em> </p><p>She’s not looking for a relationship right now, she’s much too busy with work to even entertain the idea, and in any case, things would never work out between her and Nico- they’re much too different. </p><p>Well. At the very least, Victor would probably be very pleased if he could see her right now. </p><p>Karolina sighs loudly into the pillowcase. </p><p>This was very much not how she had intended for this trip to go, but as much as she wills herself to hate the way things have gone, she just can’t quite manage.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Christmas Eve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading, commenting, and/or leaving kudos! It means a lot to me!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She spends the next two days hiding from Nico. </p><p>Or, maybe not so much hiding as much as completely throwing herself into her work, only leaving her hotel room for her meetings with Mayor Gib and the town planning committee to organize the details of the partnership. And studiously avoiding anywhere she thinks she might run into the girl in question. </p><p>...Okay, so maybe she is hiding, just a little bit. </p><p>She’s just not sure how to face Nico again, after her foolish, unprofessional… <em>indiscretion</em>. So, she’s simply resolved not to. </p><p>It’s a good plan in theory, or so she tries to convince herself, but maybe not so much in practice. </p><p>She succeeds until Christmas Eve, when she finally runs out of meetings to attend and documentation to complete, and against her better judgement she decides to actually brave the outside world. </p><p>And so, bundling up in the coat Nico had lent her that she had never actually returned (because despite everything, she still refuses to wear that dreadful Christmas coat unless it is <em>absolutely</em> necessary), she leaves the hotel and heads for the town square, where she’s certain <em>some</em> sort of <em>something</em> will be happening. This town always seems to have an event going on, and she’s sure Christmas Eve is no exception, even if it is only ten in the morning. </p><p>She arrives at the town square to find it more crowded than she’s ever seen it, packed full of warmly dressed people of all ages happily enjoying the festivities. There are somehow even more Christmas decorations than there were the last time she had been here just the day before, but now that she’s thinking about it, she does remember Nico going on about just how all out the town goes for Christmas Eve. </p><p>And on that subject, it only takes her all of two minutes before she’s able to pick out that distinctly kind laugh that had stood out so harshly against the dark and broody aesthetic of the girl when they had first met, her eyes immediately finding the source. </p><p>But no matter, she’ll just avoid that end of the square, where she can just make out Nico seated at a table with a few others, laughing happily with a carefree smile on her face. </p><p>A smile that visibly widens when their eyes meet, and the blonde quickly turns on her heel to walk away in the other direction before the girl can lift a hand to wave her over. </p><p>She’s only taken two steps and has halfway convinced herself to just give up on this whole endeavour of interacting with people and head back to her room at the hotel when she walks straight into a solid body. </p><p>“I’m so sorry!” a deep and all too familiar voice is already saying before Karolina’s even fully aware of what happened. </p><p>“It’s fine,” she manages, taking a step back and reclaiming her personal space, fully sure of her decision to head back to the hotel now. </p><p>“Karolina, hey!” the boy in front of her greets, and her gaze snaps up to his as she realizes who it is that she just walked into. </p><p>“Chase,” she greets, forcing a polite smile. It’s not that she actively <em>dislikes</em> the boy, it’s just that she’s not really interested in having another conversation with him. </p><p>“I didn’t realize you were in town for Christmas!” he continues happily. “I’d imagine you don’t know many people around here right? Come hang out with us for a bit!”</p><p>“Oh, no. That’s alright, I was actually just heading back to the hotel,” Karolina responds quickly, but it does nothing to dim the broad grin across his face. </p><p>“Don’t be silly! No one should be alone on Christmas!” he exclaims, before seemingly catching himself. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed. Do you celebrate Christmas?”</p><p>Sighing, she weighs her options. She could lie and say no, but if word got out that the CEO of the Dean Foundation doesn’t celebrate Christmas, suddenly any and all Christmas fundraisers they host will not do nearly as well. And so, she does what she has to do, in the name of the foundation. </p><p>“I do, yes.”</p><p>“Great!” Chase beams then, as if the smile had never left his face in the first place. “Come on, we’re sitting just over there,” he insists, gesturing towards the other end of the square, and Karolina resigns herself to this being something that is happening to her. </p><p>She follows behind him as he leads her towards his friends, and it’s not until they’re just a few steps away that she realizes where exactly they’re heading, because <em>of course</em> he has to be friends with Nico of all people. </p><p>“Hey everyone, this is Karolina. She’s from the city,” he says by way of introduction, before taking a seat at the snow-covered picnic table they’re gathered around, and Karolina hesitantly stands nearby until Nico motions for her to sit next to her. </p><p>It’s a little awkward at first, just her, Nico, Chase, and Alex from the hotel, but somehow, after she manages to get over how dry her mouth seems to have gotten when she sat down next to Nico, Karolina manages to settle into the comfortable rhythm of friendly conversation. </p><p>And it’s nice. </p><p>The four of them eventually grab lunch together, then Chase and Alex split off from them to prepare for the tree lighting that evening, leaving just Nico and Karolina. </p><p>“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again,” the shorter girl says with a shrug as they wander aimlessly through the snow-covered streets of the town. </p><p>“Sorry, I had work,” the blonde replies lamely, and Nico raises an eyebrow. </p><p>“It’s okay,” she responds, and Karolina’s relieved that she doesn’t press her obvious lie. “I’m glad you’re here now though.”</p><p>“Me too,” the taller girl answers after a pause, and she’s surprised to find that she means it. </p><p>“I like your coat, by the way,” Nico says with a small laugh as they walk, and Karolina can feel her cheeks heat up in response- she’s still wearing the other girl’s coat. </p><p>They continue in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, and she spends the time trying to decide whether or not she’s glad that the other girl seems to be in no rush to discuss what had happened the last time they saw each other. Is she just trying to be respectful, or did it really mean nothing to her? And why does the latter option bother Karolina so much?</p><p>“So how are you liking Old Lace so far?” Nico asks eventually. “Do you have everything you need for work?”</p><p>“It’s… nice,” the blonde answers honestly. “Very different from the city though.”</p><p>“In a good way?”</p><p>“...Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”</p><p>“That’s good,” Nico nods. “I’ve always liked living here, especially around Christmas. The whole community really feels like one big family, and I miss that feeling, you know?”</p><p>“Yeah, I do actually,” the blonde agrees. Her parents might have been hard on her, and put her under a ton of pressure, but that’s only because they wanted her to succeed. Even after everything, she does still miss them. </p><p>“Anyways,” the shorter girl laughs, attempting to lighten the mood. “The tree lighting is tonight, where the whole town gathers and we turn off all the lights before lighting the big tree in the square for the first time. It’s really beautiful- it’ll make you feel like a kid again.”</p><p>There’s a pause then, while Karolina figures out what she wants to say, until-</p><p>“I never really celebrated Christmas,” she blurts abruptly, and it takes her a moment to recover from her own suddenness and elaborate. “Growing up, I mean. Or I guess we did, on paper at least. But we never did anything that wasn’t just for show. So this whole thing- it’s all new to me.”</p><p>“Oh,” Nico nods, and the taller girl desperately tries to read her face as she processes that information, when all of a sudden she grins broadly. “Well then, I’m going to make sure you see everything there is to see in Old Lace on Christmas Eve!” she declares, and Karolina doesn’t bother fighting the small smile that makes its way onto her lips. </p><p>Maybe this trip won’t be so bad after all. </p><p>“Alright,” she says, and then the other girl is taking her hand and pulling her along as they weave through the streets of the town until they find themselves back in the town square. </p><p>“First up, the snowpal building contest!” Nico declares, releasing the blonde’s hand as they approach the centre of the square, and Karolina misses the warmth immediately. </p><p>...So okay, maybe she does like this girl, just a little bit. </p><p>—————</p><p>It’s not long until she and Nico have taken their place in a large patch of mostly untouched snow, surrounded by the other contestants, all made up of teams of small children, a couple with parents helping out. </p><p>“Aren’t we a little outside the target demographic for this event?” Karolina asks after tapping the shorter girl’s shoulder to get her attention. </p><p>“Oh please,” Nico laughs. “You can never be too old for Christmas! Now come on, we can’t let all these little children beat us,” she says determinedly, and the blonde laughs. </p><p>It’s only a couple minutes later that the announcer marks the beginning of the competition by ringing a bell, and then Nico’s suddenly entirely focused on building the perfect snowpal- a focus that rubs off on Karolina and pretty soon the two of them are dedicatedly rolling snowballs and packing snow as they try to build the best snowpal. </p><p>The time flies by surprisingly quickly, both girls smiling and laughing as they put the finishing touches on their snowpal- a short, lopsided thing with a crudely carved face, complete with whatever bits of sticks and twigs they’d managed to find during the hourlong competition. </p><p>“So what do you think?” Nico asks, standing back to observe the snow-monstrosity they had built with her hands on her hips, her teeth biting distractingly down on her bottom lip as she tries valiantly not to laugh at the sight in front of her. </p><p>“I think he looks great,” the blonde offers, smiling genuinely. She hasn’t had meaningless, silly fun like this since she was just a kid, and even then her mom had been quick to put a stop to anything too <em>unrespectable</em>. </p><p>“Agreed,” the shorter girl responds, turning towards Karolina with a grin. “He’s just missing one thing…”</p><p>And then suddenly Nico’s closing the distance between them, standing so impossibly close to the blonde that her breath catches in her throat, and her heart starts racing at the proximity. </p><p>But the other girl just smirks, like she knows exactly what kind of effect she’s having, before calmly reaching up and grabbing Karolina’s hat right off her head before rushing away. </p><p>“Hey!” she shouts, as the other girl laughs, running over to their snowpal to place the hat on top of his head. </p><p>“Perfect,” Nico declares with a grin, and the blonde rolls her eyes as she walks over to join the girl. </p><p>“You couldn’t have used your own hat?” she grumbles playfully, rolling her eyes, and the shorter girl turns to face her. </p><p>“Nope,” she says smugly. “It had to be yours.”</p><p>They chat idly as they wait for the judges to reach their sorry excuse for a snowpal, and Nico stops mid sentence in her explanation of just why exactly it <em>had</em> to be the blonde’s hat they used and not her own when they are approached by Mayor Gib and two others whom Karolina recognizes from the town planning committee but doesn’t remember the names of. </p><p>“Hello, Nico, Karolina,” Gib greets as he arrives, coming to a stop in front of their snowpal. </p><p>“Hey Gib,” Nico grins, as Karolina nods her own greeting as well, suddenly worried as to how unprofessional this is and how badly it might reflect on the foundation. </p><p>“I’m happy to see you enjoying the holiday festivities,” he replies, his words clearly directed at the blonde. “I’ve always thought it important to be involved directly with the communities one works with, don’t you agree?”</p><p>“Yes, definitely,” Karolina responds, a relieved and genuine smile on her face at the realization that this is actually helping the foundation, and that really the smart decision here is to spend the rest of the day with Nico as well. </p><p>“And who do we have here?” Gib asks then, his attention fully directed towards the lopsided snowpal in front of him. </p><p>“This is Rufus,” Nico announces proudly, and the blonde raises an eyebrow because this is the first she’s hearing of this naming decision. </p><p>Mayor Gib and the rest of the judges spend a few moments looking over their work, before continuing on to the next group. </p><p>“Rufus?” Karolina asks as soon as they’re out of earshot. </p><p>“Yeah! Great name, huh?” the girl responds happily, eyes narrowing as she observes the blonde’s less-than-thrilled expression. </p><p>“Wait. Do you not like the name Rufus?” she asks slowly, and the taller girl hesitates for just a second too long before answering. </p><p>“I mean…” she starts, trailing off helplessly. </p><p>“It’s a great name!” Nico insists, and Karolina shrugs halfheartedly. “It’ll grow on you, you’ll see,” she adds smugly, and the smile on the blonde’s face at the girl’s determination is nothing short of genuine. </p><p>—————</p><p>“Okay, next up is the sledding hill!” Nico declares after the winners of the snowpal building contest have been announced. </p><p>(The two of them placed a respectable dead last with their poor little Rufus snowpal, but they took it in stride and met the ruling with laughter loud enough to attract a few looks from the other contestants.)</p><p>“I’m sorry, what?” the blonde asks, because there is no way that she, the CEO of the Dean Foundation and respectable name in the world of business, is going <em>sledding</em>. Building a snowpal was already pushing it, but there’s just no way-</p><p>…Five minutes later Karolina finds herself being pulled towards the sledding hill, her hand held tightly by the girl in front of her as she leads the way, her cheeks pink from more than just the cold. </p><p>“Alright, are you ready?” Nico asks with a grin, looking towards the taller girl expectantly as she gestures towards the sleds that the town has provided for the event. </p><p>“Uh…” she responds, looking warily at the pile of rickety wooden sleds that she’s not sure would survive a trip down the rather impressive hill they currently find themselves on top of on their own, let alone with a passenger. “Those don’t really look all that sturdy…”</p><p>“Come on, it’s not Christmas unless you end up completely covered in snow at least once,” Nico explains, and the blonde laughs. </p><p>“You’re telling me you actually <em>want</em> to fall out of the sled?” she asks incredulously. </p><p>“Yes! Exactly that! That’s half the fun!”</p><p>“Nico… I’m not sure…” </p><p>“Come on, please? How about if we share a sled? I promise it’ll be fun,” the shorter girl insists, continuing when she sees the uncertainty on the blonde’s face. “If you really don’t want to though that’s fine too, we can find something else instead.”</p><p>“No, no it’s okay. I’ll try it,” Karolina nods determinedly, and the girl in front of her smiles broadly in response. </p><p>“Together?” Nico asks, grabbing a sled from the stack and holding it out questioningly, and the blonde freezes at the genuine offer in her voice. </p><p>It’s been so long since she’s really felt like she’s done something <em>with</em> someone. It’s not like she spends all of her time alone by any stretch, she’s usually constantly going from meeting to meeting and public appearance to public appearance. But those always felt like things that she just had to do where other people happened to be present- they weren’t doing it <em>together</em>, even when they were working towards the same goal. </p><p>“Together,” she confirms after a pause, and if the other girl catches the way her voice cracks just a little as the word leaves her mouth, she doesn’t let it show. </p><p>Nico excitedly leads them over to a clear patch of snow at the top of the hill, and tells the blonde to take her place on the sled. </p><p>“You’re taller so it makes more sense for you to sit at the back,” she explains, and Karolina follows her instructions, tensing as the shorter girl settles between her legs, her back pressed up against the blonde’s front. </p><p>“You ready?” Nico asks, and the taller girl just nods, her mouth suddenly too dry to form a proper answer. Thankfully, that’s all the confirmation the other girl needs, and then she’s pushing off the snow next to them with her bare hands and then they’re sliding down the hill, which Karolina’s now realizing is much bigger than she had first thought. </p><p>Her arms instinctually tighten around the girl in front her as the sled picks up speed, Nico doing a surprisingly good job at steering them around the worst of the bumps and dips that make up the snow-covered hill. </p><p>Or at least, she <em>was</em> doing a good job, until they’re approaching a particularly icy patch and instead of avoiding it, she seems to decide that they should instead hit it head on- a decision that ultimately ends in the sled careening off course and both girls being thrown off and into the snow. </p><p>The blonde braces herself for impact, and it takes her a few seconds to realize that she’s not as cold and snow-covered as she should be after a landing like that, and another few to realize why. </p><p>“Oh shoot, Nico are you okay?” she asks, trying to push herself up so she can get off of the girl she’s fallen on, only to slip on the icy ground around them and fall right back down. </p><p>Her question is met with loud peals of laughter as the girl underneath her shakes as she laughs, and Karolina can’t help the smile on her face as she pushes herself up until her arms are supporting most of her weight. </p><p>“Yeah, I’m good,” Nico grins as her laughter finally dies down, looking up at the blonde with something in her eyes that she can’t quite place. “You?”</p><p>She just nods silently in response, too focused on the way the shorter girl’s eyes have left her own to instead focus on her lips to be able to form words. </p><p>She waits a few seconds, but Nico doesn’t look away, and then Karolina’s leaning down to close the distance between them and capture her lips with her own. </p><p>Their second kiss is nothing like their first. Where their first was careful and tentative, their second was all heat and want, Nico’s mouth quickly opening to allow the blonde better access, and despite the below-zero temperature, Karolina practically melts when the girls hands come up to tangle in her hair. (And for the first time she’s incredibly glad that Nico had stolen her hat and insisted they left it with their poor little last-place snowpal.)</p><p>They stay like this for only a few minutes, luckily having landed far enough off to the side of the hill to be too obscured by the small trees and piles of snow around them to draw any attention to themselves. </p><p>They only pull apart when another sled comes skidding by, close enough to their hiding spot to send up a spray of snow in their direction, cold, wet flakes hitting their faces and causing them to jolt away from each other, the chill of the snow snapping them out of their own little world and back to real life. </p><p>Karolina quickly scrambles to her feet, wiping the wet snow out off her face and out of her hair as Nico stands to join her. </p><p>“Sorry,” the blonde says sheepishly, embarrassed at having gotten so carried away, but Nico just smiles in response. </p><p>“Don’t be,” she says simply. “I’m not.”</p><p>And then she’s grabbing the taller girl’s hand with one of her own, the sled with the other, and they’re heading back up the hill. </p><p>They spend the next hour sledding down the hill and then climbing back up to do it again, and Karolina can’t remember the last time she had this much fun. </p><p>By the time the loudspeakers in the centre of town announce that the tree lighting will begin in one hour, she’s thoroughly soaked by the snow, but genuinely happy for the first time in a long time. </p><p>“Do you want to grab dinner before the tree lighting?” Nico asks as they reach the bottom of the hill yet again, and Karolina agrees easily, standing from the sled and reaching for the shorter girl’s hand without thinking. </p><p>Nico hands their sled off to a family who’s just arrived at the hill, and then they’re heading towards the restaurants in the town square hand in hand. </p><p>—————</p><p>By the time they finish their dinner and leave the restaurant, it’s only fifteen minutes until the tree lighting is set to begin- an event that Nico’s been excitedly explaining to her all throughout the meal. </p><p>So naturally, Karolina’s confused when instead of heading towards the main square, Nico leads her towards another store further down the street. </p><p>“Where are we going?” she asks, and the shorter girl grins in response as she leads her towards the ice cream shop she had noticed earlier. </p><p>“The tree lighting isn’t complete without ice cream,” she explains, as if telling someone that they’re getting ice cream when it’s already below freezing outside is a completely normal thing to do. </p><p>Despite the blonde’s initial skepticism at the idea, once they’re both settled into the crowd in the square, ice cream in hand as they enjoy the general excitement around them that comes before the festivities, she has to admit that it’s not a terrible idea. </p><p>Nico smiles proudly as Karolina tells her exactly that, the two girls standing so close they’re practically touching so they don’t lose each other in the crowd as the event begins. </p><p>“Happy holidays citizens of Old Lace and our welcome guests!” Chase announces from where he sits by a control panel next to the tree, Alex adjusting dials from where he sits by his side. </p><p>“Are you ready for the annual tree lighting?” the blonde boy all but shouts into his microphone, and his words are met by a raucous applause from the increasingly large crowd that has now gathered in the town square. </p><p>The next half hour is filled with Chase leading the excited crowd through various classic Christmas carols, along with some modified versions that the entirety of the town seems to inexplicably know by heart, containing a surprising number of dinosaur references. </p><p>“And now for the reason everyone’s here,” Chase announces once the singing has come to a close, both Karolina’s and Nico’s ice creams long since finished, their fingers having found each other’s and now tightly intertwined between them. </p><p>“The lighting of the Old Lace town square Christmas tree!” Chase finishes, causing the crowd to erupt with cheers once again, before he leads everyone in a countdown culminating in the illumination of hundreds of Christmas lights hung from every branch of the towering tree, silver-white lights sparkling against the darkness of night that falls so early this time of year, even more visible now that the rest of the lights in the town square are out. </p><p>—————</p><p>“Thank you, for today,” Karolina says as the events of the evening wind down, the crowd that had gathered to watch the lighting of the tree and subsequent celebrations dissipating into the night, leaving just the girls wandering hand in hand despite the chill of the night air, along with a few stragglers. </p><p>“You don’t need to thank me. I enjoyed it,” Nico replies, meeting her eyes in a way that shows the blonde that she’s being nothing short of genuine, and causing her breath to catch in her throat at the same time. </p><p>Unconsciously, Karolina’s eyes focus on the shorter girl’s lips as she swallows hard, and when she looks back up again, there’s something in the deep brown eyes staring back at her that wasn’t there before. </p><p>And then they’re both leaning in and their lips are meeting again, and everything’s somehow so much better than the last time, as Karolina’s arms settle across Nico’s shoulders and the shorter girl pulls her closer by the hands resting on her hips. </p><p>“I’m leaving tomorrow,” the blonde gasps against the other girl’s mouth when they finally pull apart to breathe, as she feels Nico’s hands tighten where they’re twisted in the sides of her coat. </p><p>“That’s okay,” she feels more than hears the girl answer, her breath hot against her lips in the cold air of the winter night. “I’m only asking for tonight.”</p><p>Everything happens quickly after that, as Karolina closes the distance between them again, before Nico’s breaking away this time to tangle their fingers together and lead them both towards her apartment just down the street. </p><p>Locking the door behind them, the shorter girl wastes no time in pulling the blonde up the stairs behind her and into her apartment. </p><p>“Are you sure about this?” Nico asks before they take things any further, both girls breathing heavily as they stand in the entryway of the apartment. </p><p>“Yes,” Karolina answers, because even if her trip to Old Lace has been nothing but confusing so far, she is sure about this. “Are you?”</p><p>“Yes,” the shorter girl replies, breathless, and neither girl wastes any time before closing the distance, their lips meeting again and only separating for breath as they make their way towards the bed. </p><p>It’s not long until clothes are discarded, and Karolina relishes the sparks that shoot across her body as her bare skin meets Nico’s, and they quickly lose themselves in each other. </p><p>And if this feels different than any other casual hookup the blonde’s ever had, she doesn’t dare acknowledge that fact. </p><p>—————</p><p>Ten hours later, she finds herself on the train back to Gibborim City.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. More Than Enough</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you to everyone who read, commented, and/or left kudos!</p><p>Happy New Year!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Karolina reads the same paragraph over for what must be the fifth time before giving up on getting any work done tonight. </p><p>She sighs, rubbing the heels of her hands into her tired eyes as she plays through her last morning in Old Lace over again in her mind, just as she’s been doing on repeat since she got back from the small town five days ago. </p><p><em>It’s eight in the morning when the alarm she’d set the night before goes off on Karolina’s phone, and she immediately reaches over to silence it, in the hopes of not waking the girl she’s currently wrapped around.</em> </p><p>
  <em>They had fallen asleep tangled up in each other late last night, after… everything, and at some point since, the blonde had ended up on her back, Nico’s head settled on her shoulder, nestled into the crook of her neck, arm wrapped tightly around the taller girl’s waist. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>And it’s nice. The trust, the closeness that they’d managed to build over such a short amount of time. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But she knows it can’t last. She has a job to get back to in the big city, after all. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>...She gives herself an extra fifteen minutes of enjoying the smaller girl’s warmth and proximity before reluctantly extracting herself from the embrace, even if it means she'll be tight for time when she goes back to the hotel to grab her things before she catches the train home. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>She thinks she’s successful as she grabs her scattered clothes from around the room and hastily gets dressed, and it’s not until she’s pulling her sweater on over her head that she notices brown eyes watching her intently. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Hi,” Karolina whispers into the relative darkness, only a small bit of light managing to seep through the pitch black curtains covering the windows, even at this late hour of the morning. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You’re leaving,” Nico says, just as quiet, and it’s not a question, but the blonde nods anyways. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I have to catch the train,” she says then, still keeping her voice low. It somehow feels wrong to break the fragile silence that surrounds them. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nico’s quiet for a long while after that, as Karolina puts on her boots and makes sure she hasn’t forgotten anything. She leaves the coat the other girl had lent her draped over a kitchen chair, not sure where she should put it, before a quiet voice breaks the silence again. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Will you come back?” the shorter girl asks quietly, maybe nervously, maybe it’s just sleep making her voice rough, Karolina’s not sure. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>She pauses. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“We have everything we need to continue with the outreach program,” she says after a moment. “I don’t see what reason I would have to come back.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The words are bitter on her tongue, but it’s much too early in the morning and she’s feeling much too emotionally drained to give the feeling any thought. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“And if you missed something?” Nico asks, searching the blonde’s face for something, though Karolina has no idea what. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Then I’ll send someone,” she states simply, sure she’s missing something important if the expression on the other girl’s face is any indication, but she doesn’t know what else she can say. She has responsibilities to attend to back in Gibborim City, and she doesn’t want to lie to Nico about the likelihood of her coming back to Old Lace again. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Thank you for yesterday,” she adds curtly. “And for last night as well.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>And then she’s heading to the door, only looking back into the apartment as she’s about to close the door behind her, blue eyes meeting brown for just an instant, before the door clicks shut and Karolina’s left standing alone at the top of the stairs. </em>
</p><p>She’s interrupted from her thoughts by a soft knock at the door to her office, before it swings open and Victor steps in. </p><p>“Hi Miss Dean!” he says cheerfully as he enters the room, offering her a smile that the blonde tries and fails to return. “I’m heading out now, but I wanted to check if you needed anything before I leave.”</p><p>There’s a beat of silence before Karolina finally speaks. </p><p>“Victor, why are you still here?” she asks, looking up at the boy in question with a vulnerability on her face that she’s spent years learning how to properly mask. But she’s tired. </p><p>“Um… I work here?” he responds confusedly. “Are you feeling alright, Miss Dean?”</p><p>“No, I mean, I gave you the day off if you wanted it. Why didn’t you take it?” </p><p>“Honestly?” the boy asks tentatively as he walks further towards her desk, and Karolina nods. </p><p>“Well, I don’t mean to overstep, but you’ve been… <em>different</em>, ever since you got back from your trip. A couple of us have noticed, and well… we’re kind of worried. Is everything okay?” he tells her genuinely, and the blonde’s not really sure what to make of his concern. “I came in today to check in on you,” he shrugs, like it’s no big deal, like his words aren’t making her rethink a lot of her views that she’s held so strongly to over the past few years. </p><p>Ever since she was thrown into a leadership role at the foundation, she’s always felt that it was her against the world. Like she had to do it all on her own, and if she let anyone close enough to help her then it would mean that she wasn’t good enough. That all those articles saying that losing the Deans in a tragic plane accident that resulted in their twenty-four year old daughter taking the reins of the foundation would mean that the foundation would be going under within the first fiscal year were right. That she doesn’t deserve to be where she is, even though she’s worked herself to the bone since taking the job. </p><p>But maybe she’s not quite as alone as she thought she was. </p><p>She’s not entirely sure why she does what she does next. </p><p>It might be because she’s finally realized just how lonely her life is, and she wants to finally let someone in again. It might be because tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and she doesn’t want to ring in the new year by herself again. Or it might be the leftover <em>Christmas magic</em> in the air, as Victor calls it. For god’s sake, it might the stupid holiday sweater the boy’s wearing, a cheesy quote about friendship stitched across the front. </p><p>But whatever it is has the words tumbling out of Karolina’s mouth before she can think better of it. </p><p>“Something happened in Old Lace, actually,” she says suddenly and awkwardly, unable to meet the boy’s eyes as he sits down in one of the chairs across from her desk with his brows furrowed. </p><p>Taking a breath, the blonde finally looks up to nervously meet his gaze. “Or, I guess I should say, <em>someone</em>.”</p><p>And with that, a large grin slowly breaks out across the boy’s face. “You mean it really worked?” he asks excitedly. “Heck yes! Molly owes me twenty dollars!”</p><p>“What? What are you talking about?” Karolina asks, thoroughly confused, and already rethinking her decision to try and open up to the one person she actually trusts for once. Although, technically he’s not the <em>only</em> person she trusts anymore, she supposes. </p><p>“It’s Chase right? Tell me it’s Chase,” Victor continues excitedly, ignoring her question completely. </p><p>“Chase?” Karolina asks, entirely lost, until she remembers the boy’s request from just before she had left for Old Lace over a week ago now. “Oh, right! I should have it right here, I think,” she says, rummaging through her bag before pulling out the little wooden tree ornament she had purchased from Chase. </p><p>“What’s this?” Victor asks, eyeing the piece of wood warily as she hands it over. </p><p>“You wanted an ornament from Chase’s store?” the blonde explains, utterly confused by this point, because really now she just doesn’t have a single clue as to what’s going on. </p><p>“Right! Yes! I do want that!” Victor says then, taking the offered ornament quickly. </p><p>“Okay, Victor, what is going on right now?” Karolina asks him seriously, eyeing his odd behaviour. “Is this weird?” she asks then, her face softening worriedly as she starts to ramble. “It’s just, I’ve been in my head a lot lately, and I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this kind of stuff, and then you were asking if I was okay, and I just thought- but you were probably just being nice, and I’m your boss, so this is weird-”</p><p>“Hey, no! It’s not that at all,” Victor interrupts, and the reassuring smile he’s offering quickly turns sheepish. “It’s not weird. But I should probably tell you the truth… I sent you to Old Lace with ulterior motives.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” Karolina asks slowly, as the boy in front of her refuses to meet her eyes. </p><p>“I mean, of course I take my job seriously, I knew it would be good for the company, but the thing is… it probably wasn’t my place, but I thought you were lonely,” he explains, shrugging as continues. “And you just reminded me so much of the women in all the Christmas romcoms I watch so… I figured I’d send you to Old Lace and let the holiday magic do its job. And clearly it worked out well! I mean, you and Chase are in love, so-”</p><p>Karolina cuts him off with a laugh she couldn’t have stopped herself from letting out if she had tried. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” she says quickly, covering her mouth to stifle the laughter as Victor’s expression quickly turns confused. “But Chase Stein? Please, he’s not the person I can’t get out of my head.”</p><p>“Oh,” Victor responds, looking at a loss for words. “Who is then?” he asks after a pause. </p><p>She swallows, stopping for a moment to think before deciding that <em>yes</em>, this is something she’s going to do. Even in his misguided way, Victor <em>had</em> had her best interests at heart, and seemed to genuinely want for her to be happy, and besides, he’s been her assistant for years. She trusts him with the future of the entire Dean Foundation, she can surely trust him with this too. </p><p>“Her name’s Nico,” she says quietly, a soft smile on her face that she can’t quite stop in time, and Victor’s eyes widen slightly at her words as he processes them. </p><p>“Oh,” he says, and then a moment later, slightly louder, as an apologetic expression takes over his face. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I- I mean, I really shouldn’t have assumed- But all the movies were just so- That’s no excuse of course, I just- Miss Dean, I’m so, <em>so</em> sorry that I tried to set you up with Chase.”</p><p>“It’s fine, Victor,” she says genuinely, finding that she really does mean it. She pauses for a moment, thinking over her next words before she continues. “You can call me Karolina though, I think.”</p><p>“Okay,” he nods, a smile returning to his face. “So Nico, huh?” he says, and Karolina nods. “Tell me about her.”</p><p>—————</p><p>“Wow,” Victor breathes as Karolina finally finishes her recount of her time in Old Lace, and her subsequent analysis of her own feelings since. (Though there were <em>certain details</em> she did skip over- there’s only so much a boss should share with her employee, after all.) </p><p>“You really like this girl,” he says after a second, and she nods, even though they both know it’s not a question. </p><p>“I do,” she agrees with a shrug. “Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about it. I appreciate you listening to me though, truly.”</p><p>“Nothing you can do about it?” Victor echoes incredulously. “There’s still time for you to make this right!”</p><p>“How do you mean?” Karolina asks with a frown. Okay yes, over the past few days since she got back from Old Lace she’s realized that she most definitely has feelings for Nico, stronger feelings than she can ever remember having for anyone, and that perhaps telling her that she has no reason to come back to Old Lace may have hurt her feelings, a lot. </p><p>But as much as it would be nice to apologize for saying what she said, it still wouldn’t change anything between them. Something happening with her and Nico was still outside the realm of possibility. It wasn’t like she could just leave her whole life and everything she’s worked for behind and move to Old Lace, and besides, the two of them come from different worlds. It would never work long term. </p><p>“Christmas isn’t over yet,” Victor states, as if that explains everything, and Karolina frowns in response. </p><p>“Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve. Christmas was five days ago,” she says, but the boy dismisses it with a wave of his hand. </p><p>“That’s just a technicality. There’s still Christmas magic in the air, so there’s still time!”</p><p>“Time for what?” she asks, unsure as to what he’s trying to get at. </p><p>“Karolina, are you happy?” Victor asks suddenly, and she blinks at the abruptness of the question. “Here, with your life in Gibborim City, are you happy?”</p><p>The blonde hesitates, not sure how to respond, but thankfully he takes that as enough of an answer. </p><p>“Does Nico make you happy?” he asks, and Karolina doesn’t even have time to think before she’s nodding. </p><p>“So, are we going to Old Lace or not?” he asks with a smile, and a minute later she matches the expression. </p><p>—————</p><p>“What are we doing here?” Karolina asks the next morning, wrapping her arms more tightly around herself in an effort to keep out the chill that’s managing to seep through her new jacket. (Because after Old Lace, she’s decided to never go anywhere without a winter jacket again, and promptly purchased the warmest one money can buy.)</p><p>“Trains aren’t running today,” Victor explains again, as he repeatedly presses the doorbell on the nondescript front porch they currently find themselves standing on. “This is the best way to get there.”</p><p>After a couple minutes of waiting, a very tired-looking girl with long brown hair answers the door, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. </p><p>“Victor, what the heck?” she asks, blinking sleepily at the boy in front of her before her gaze settles on Karolina. </p><p>“You ready to go?” he asks happily, ignoring her confusion as she turns her attention slowly back to him. </p><p>“...You weren’t joking?” she asks, eyebrows raising. “Your dumb plan actually worked?”</p><p>“Not exactly as expected, but yeah,” he nods, and Karolina can feel her cheeks turn pink as they both turn towards her. </p><p>“Hi. Molly, right?” she offers, recognizing the girl in question from work. She had always been more friendly with her than the other interns had ever been, but the blonde had never really taken the chance to talk to her before. </p><p>“Yes! Hi Miss Dean!” the girl practically shouts. “Uh, I’m sorry, just let me change and then we can go, one minute.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Karolina smiles, deciding that maybe having friends wouldn’t be so bad after all, if her friends are anything like Victor and Molly. “And please, Karolina is fine.”</p><p>—————</p><p>Which is how Karolina now finds herself in the passenger seat of a pickup truck, Victor to her left and Molly driving on the other side of him, an hour into their drive to Old Lace. </p><p>“Thank you again for doing this,” she says, breaking the silence that had settled between them, Christmas songs playing quietly from the truck’s radio. “I’m sure you have better things to be doing on New Year’s Eve.”</p><p>“Nonsense!” Victor grins. “Nothing is more important than love- we’re more than happy to help.”</p><p>“No problem at all, Miss Dean,” Molly nods from the driver’s seat, her eyes fixed on the snowy road in front of her. “It’s nice to finally have a use for the snowplow attachment I bought for my truck.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Karolina says again, genuinely. “And like I said, Karolina is fine.”</p><p>“Okay,” the younger girl nods. “So, uh, Miss Dean- sorry, Miss Karolina- do you have a plan for what you’re going to say?” </p><p>The blonde laughs at the formality that the girl seems so reluctant to drop before responding. </p><p>“I’m sure I can come up with something…”</p><p>—————</p><p>She very much could not come up with something. </p><p>She had spent the majority of the drive up, which was quite long, especially considering the number of Christmas songs Victor and Molly had insisted on singing along to, thinking, and yet she still has no idea what she’s going to say to Nico as the truck pulls into a spot outside the town’s pizza place. </p><p>“Alright, off you go,” Victor says with an encouraging smile, as the blonde takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. </p><p>It doesn’t help. </p><p>It turns out no amount of board meeting presentations and highly broadcasted press conferences could prepare her for telling the girl she only just realized she has feelings for after basically telling her she had no intention of seeing her again that she wants a relationship with her. A relationship that she’s still skeptical about but wants to try thanks to the encouragement of two of her employees. </p><p>“Yes, right,” she nods, and the boy shoots her a thumbs up. </p><p>“You’ve got this. From what you’ve told me, it sounds like she really likes you too!” he reassures her, but it doesn’t do much to calm the butterflies in her stomach. </p><p>“Thank you both for doing this,” she nods as she opens the door to get out of the truck, before Victor speaks again. </p><p>“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” he smiles. “What are friends for?”</p><p>“...Friends?” Karolina asks before she can stop herself. </p><p>“Yeah, if you want,” he shrugs, and the blonde smiles widely. </p><p>“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”</p><p>She returns the wave Molly offers her as she closes the truck door after exiting, now standing in the snow of the parking lot, and she takes her time as she heads towards where she suspects Nico will be- the empty store one space over. </p><p>Of course, the store is right next door so even at her slow pace it takes her all of thirty seconds to arrive, and in practically no time at all she finds herself standing in front of the boarded up shop Nico likes to write in. </p><p>Honestly Karolina has half the mind to turn around and give up on her silly, nonexistent plan, but thankfully the other half of her mind is telling her not to mess this up- this is the first time in a long time that the Dean Foundation hasn’t been the most important thing on her mind. And thinking back to the way that Nico makes her feel, she knows there’s really only one course of action for her to take. </p><p>And so, steeling herself with one more deep breath, she raises her fist to knock on the door. </p><p>But before she can make contact, the door swings open to reveal the girl that’s been on her mind ever since she first spent the afternoon with her. </p><p>“Nico…” she breathes, a look of complete surprise taking over the shorter girl’s face before settling into something more wary. “Hi.”</p><p>An eyebrow raises as Nico stares at her silently, and honestly Karolina doesn’t blame her. All her attempts at planning and the best she can come up with is <em>hi?</em></p><p>“I just wanted to- I mean- Can we talk?” she continues after a pause that makes it clear that Nico’s not going to help her out with this. </p><p>After a moment, the shorter girl nods once, turning around and gesturing for the blonde to follow her back into the store. </p><p>“I wanted to apologize,” Karolina blurts as soon as Nico turns to face her again, and it’s just the two of them. </p><p>“I’ve spent so long prioritizing my job, and the foundation, that I didn’t realize what I was missing, what I really wanted, until it was too late,” she continues, meeting the other girl’s eyes intently, willing her to see that she means what she’s saying. </p><p>“The time we spent together here, it meant so much to me. You showed me that there’s more to life than just work, and how to have real, actual fun. And I mean, at least <em>I</em> think that there’s something real between us, and I want to see where it can go. But I know I messed up, leaving you like that, after… everything, and I probably don’t deserve your forgiveness. But I’m so, <em>so</em> sorry.</p><p>“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and I think that scared me. I refused to believe things would work out between us because I knew it would hurt more if I took a chance on us and then I lost you, so I decided that I wouldn’t let that happen. I didn’t want to get hurt. But leaving you like that- it hurt so much more. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, about <em>us</em>, and what I said before I left. But I want you to know that you’re more than enough reason for me to come back to Old Lace. You’ll always be more than enough for me.”</p><p>There’s a silence that couldn’t be more than a few seconds long but that feels like forever as she waits for Nico’s answer with baited breath. </p><p>“You came all the way here to apologize?” the girl says finally, the barest hint of a smile playing at her lips. “On New Year’s Eve?”</p><p>“Um,” Karolina stutters, her cheeks flushing pink. “Yes? I realized yesterday how I felt, and Victor said I should tell you before it’s too late, and I really, <em>really</em> didn’t want it to be too late…” </p><p>“It’s not too late,” Nico answers, her smile widening as she takes a step forward, closer to the blonde. </p><p>“Wait, really?” she responds, surprised at how well this seemed to be going. Honestly she had expected a lot more apologizing, which she was more than willing to do. </p><p>“You made a dumb mistake because you were scared,” the shorter girl shrugs. “And now you’re back.”</p><p>And with that, she’s closing the distance between them, their lips meeting softly, tentatively at first, before they both melt into it, and nothing’s ever felt so right. </p><p>Eventually they have to break apart for air, and Karolina leans their foreheads together, holding the other girl close. </p><p>“I can move here. I’ll work remotely, or go to the city every other week, or quit my job altogether, I don’t care. I have money saved up, I don’t need to work. I’ll put Victor in charge of the foundation. We’ll figure this out,” she insists, only pulling away when she feels Nico laughing against her. </p><p>“You’re kidding, right?” she laughs, shaking her head fondly. “You’re an idiot.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I can write anywhere. You run an entire foundation. I’ll move, when we get to that part,” she explains patiently. </p><p>“Oh. Okay yeah, that makes sense,” Karolina replies, blushing. “So what now?”</p><p>“Now?” Nico repeats, laughing again. “<em>Now</em>, we go out on a proper date, and then you kiss me at midnight.”</p><p>“Yeah?” the blonde replies, grinning. </p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>And they did. </p><p>And the year after that too. </p><p>And the next. </p><p>And the next. </p><p>And… well, you get the idea.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Four Years Later</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading, commenting, and/or leaving kudos!</p><p>This chapter is a short epilogue.</p><p>Also, may I just say that this is the last time I start posting a fic before having the majority of it already written, because this has been a terribly stressful experience for me.</p><p>Anyways, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Victor Mancha has always loved Christmas romcoms. But he loves his friends more. </p><p>He loves spending Christmases with them, away from the hustle of the big city, in the little town of Old Lace, celebrating the simple things as they take part in the town’s many celebrations. </p><p>Case in point, right now. </p><p>“Hey! No fair!” Victor shouts as he falls victim to friendly fire, a large snowball hitting him square in the back and causing him to spin around, only to find himself face to face with a grinning Chase. </p><p>“All’s fair in love and war,” the taller boy shrugs, laughter dancing in blue eyes, and Victor considers his next course of action for just a second before he’s repurposing the snowball in his hands that was intended for Molly. </p><p>He quickly lunges forward to shove the snow down the collar of the other boy’s coat, all but tackling him to the ground when he tries to dodge at the last minute, the two wrestling playfully  in the snow as their laughter fills the air. Eventually, the shorter boy manages to gain the upper hand, pinning Chase down in the snow with his body. </p><p>“Yeah?” Victor asks as he catches his breath, now lying half on top of the blonde boy, their faces only inches apart as he props himself up on his elbows. “And which category did that fall into, exactly?” </p><p>“Hmm,” Chase ponders, faux-thoughtful, an all too pleased expression taking over his face as he looks up at the boy on top of him. “A little bit of both, I think,” he concludes, before leaning up to press a sweet, soft kiss to the corner of the shorter boy’s mouth. </p><p>Victor can feel his cheeks heating up, and he knows he’s blushing but there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Honestly, he’s just not sure he’ll ever get used to this. </p><p>“Is that right?” he grins in response, his expression coming across more like a lovesick smile than the teasing smirk he was aiming for, but he can’t bring himself to care. </p><p>He’s just about to lean down and capture the other boy’s lips with his own when they’re interrupted by yelling directed at them from the other side of the battlefield. </p><p>“Hey! Get a room!” Molly shouts teasingly, lobbing a snowball towards them with impressive force. “There are children present!” she adds, gesturing towards the little boy babbling happily in the snow just a little ways away. </p><p>The snowball lands next to Chase’s head just as Victor’s about to respond, causing the two boys to quickly separate as they avoid the spray of snow. </p><p>Molly laughs happily at their reaction, clearly pleased with herself, and Victor rolls his eyes as he accepts the hand Chase offers him as he pulls him to his feet. </p><p>“Yeah, yeah, you’re very funny,” Victor drawls as he and Chase make their way over to where Nico and Karolina are sitting in the snow, Molly having already joined them while the boys were getting as much snow as they could out from inside their jackets. </p><p>The girl in question only sticks out her tongue in response, laughing again when Victor reaches out to ruffle her hair fondly. </p><p>“No!” a tiny voice shouts suddenly, and all eyes turn towards the little boy seated between Nico and Karolina, his curly black hair mostly obscured by the colourful hat on his head. (Karolina had picked out that hat for him, much to Nico’s dismay, who had wanted to get him something more ‘respectable’ as she had called it, like black or grey.)</p><p>“What’s wrong, little buddy?” Chase asks as he kneels down in front of the kid, who quickly turns to him with a wide smile, before flinging a handful of snow at him. </p><p>“Hey! Not you too!” the blonde boy responds indignantly as he shakes the snow out of his hair. </p><p>“‘No’ is Rufus’ word for ‘snow’,” Nico explains, before turning to the little boy and sternly telling him about why we don’t throw snow at our friends- which is a hard message to get across considering the snowball fight they had just witnessed. </p><p>Victor and Karolina exchange a fond smile as they watch their friends- or, more accurately, their <em>family</em>. </p><p>It’s been four years now since he misguidedly sent Karolina to Old Lace over Christmas in the hopes of giving her her happy ending with Chase. </p><p>Despite how clearly terribly he had read the situation and how grossly he had miscalculated the outcome, even Molly had to admit that things turned out pretty well for everyone in the end. </p><p>Nico and Karolina had dated for nearly half a year before Nico made the move to Gibborim City, continuing her writing from their shared apartment while Karolina made sure to take more time off work, both to take care of herself and to make time for the people in her life that she cares about. </p><p>About a year after that, Victor received an invitation to their wedding, where he spent the entire event hanging out with Chase, whom he had seen only a handful of times prior. </p><p>Eventually Nico and Karolina decided to start a family, and along came their son, Rufus. Victor had never seen either of them happier than they were the day Rufus was born, and he was so proud of how his boss had figured out what was important to her and what she wanted in life. </p><p>It had taken him a while to figure himself out though, and to realize that maybe his excitement at setting Karolina up with somebody like Chase had been him projecting what he was actually looking for in a partner, but in the end he did, and he couldn’t be happier. </p><p>He and Chase have been dating for nearly a year now, and while it’s not like this is going to be the first Christmas they’ve spent together with their friends, it is going to be the first Christmas they spend <em>together</em> together. And yeah, maybe Victor’s a <em>little</em> bit nervous, but mostly he’s just excited. </p><p>This Christmas is going to be great, he just knows it. </p><p>—————</p><p>“This is the worst Christmas ever,” Molly grumbles from her place by the window the next day, watching the torrential downpour outside with a forlorn expression on her face. “What’s the point of coming to Old Lace for Christmas if it’s going to rain the whole time?”</p><p>“Aw, come on, Molls. It’s not that bad,” Karolina says, doing her best to be reassuring even as most of her attention is taken up by the squirming one year old in her arms who refuses to wear a shirt. “There’s still plenty to do in- Rufus! We don’t pull hair!”</p><p>“Yeah, we can still have a great Christmas even without all the usual traditions!” Chase pipes up from where he and Victor are settled on the couch, the shorter boy lying across it with his head in the other boy’s lap, feet up over the armrest. </p><p>“We don’t need the town Christmas caroling, or the toboggan hill, or the snowpal building contest… or the ice cream… or the tree lighting…” he continues, trailing off as he goes through the list of everything that he and Nico had been doing here for Christmas ever since they were kids, and everything the rest of them had come to think of as an essential part of their holidays ever since their first Christmas spent all five of them here in Old Lace, three years ago now. </p><p>“Aw man! No ice cream!” Molly exclaims, looking impossibly more dejected at the thought of not having her ice cream in the snow, something that Victor’s never really quite understood. He always just ends up feeling even more chilled afterwards, so he really doesn't understand the appeal. </p><p>“Guys! Come on!” he says at that, sitting up as he addresses them, doing his best to lift their holiday spirit. “It’s <em>Christmas!</em> We don’t need any of that! Molly, what’s the most important message of every Christmas romcom we’ve ever seen?”</p><p>“Uh, you can’t have both love and your career?” she offers, faux-serious, and Victor rolls his eyes exasperatedly. </p><p>“You have to have known that wasn’t what I was looking for,” he responds, narrowing his eyes as Chase laughs along with Molly. </p><p>“The correct answer is-” he continues once their laughter has died down, only to be interrupted by the happy squeal of a little boy, finally wearing a shirt now, as Rufus runs into the room, heading straight for Chase. </p><p>“Hey little buddy!” Chase coos as he scoops the little boy up into his arms, bouncing him on his knee to be met with happy giggles. </p><p>“The correct answer is, all you really need for a great Christmas is your family,” Karolina finishes as she walks into the room, arm around Nico and holding her close to her side as she grins down at her. </p><p>“Ew, that’s so cheesy!” Chase teases, making an exaggeratedly disgusted face that has Rufus giggling once again. </p><p>“Oh please,” Nico responds with a roll of her eyes and a poorly concealed smile. “You’re one to talk. You’re the one who’s dating the expert on holiday romcoms.”</p><p>“Hey! At least I’m a good enough partner to watch said romcoms with him just because he wants me to!” Chase shoots back, and Victor raises his eyebrows at that. </p><p>“You said you liked Christmas romcoms!” he interjects indignantly, and the blonde boy turns to him with a sheepish smile, Rufus now settled snugly on his lap as he plays with his favourite dinosaur toy. </p><p>“Sorry babe,” Chase shrugs. “I don’t really like the romcoms, but I do like spending time with you though,” he offers sweetly, leaning over to give Victor a quick kiss on the cheek. </p><p>“Yeah, well I would watch them if Karolina wanted me to, but thankfully she has taste and doesn’t like them,” Nico continues smugly, settling on the armrest of the chair Karolina’s moved to. </p><p>“You still haven’t told her?” Molly pipes up from where she’s been watching the exchange with amusement, temporarily forgetting her woes of having an unusually warm and rainy Christmas in what seems to be a town with perpetually snowy winters. </p><p>“Uh,” Karolina starts, eyes wide and cheeks turning pink as Nico whips her head towards her, Victor laughing because he knows exactly where this is going. </p><p>“Tell me what?” the girl asks, eyeing the blonde next to her suspiciously. </p><p>“We converted her!” Victor and Molly say in unison, and Karolina laughs nervously. </p><p>“No! Tell me it isn’t true!” Nico responds when Karolina doesn’t disagree, before a dramatically sad expression takes over the shorter girl’s face. “What have they done to you?”</p><p>“Okay fine,” the blonde replies after a moment. “Molly and Victor showed me some of their romcoms, and maybe they’re not as bad as I had thought, and some of them are actually pretty cute…” she confesses, and Nico groans. </p><p>“Alright, you win that one,” she says firmly, pointing at Chase and narrowing her eyes. “But at least I kissed her on the first date. You two dated for like a month before you worked up the nerve to kiss him!”</p><p>“We were taking things slow!” comes the taller boy’s response, one hand raised defensively while the other keeps Rufus securely on his lap as the little boy continues to play happily. “We both agreed that was what we wanted! Back me up here, Vic,” he continues, looking towards the boy in question expectantly. </p><p>“Well…” Victor responds sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I hadn’t exactly had <em>that</em> level of slowness in mind when I suggested it…”</p><p>Chase gapes comically at the boy next to him, his mouth opening and closing a few times as the brown haired boy shrugs apologetically, before he turns back towards Nico with a new determination. </p><p>“Fine,” he states, the confident grin that Victor loves so much spreading across his face. “Well, at least I didn’t name my kid after a cat!”</p><p>The colour drains from Nico’s face at that, while Karolina tilts her head confusedly, her brow furrowing, and oh, Victor is very much enjoying the turn this conversation seems to be taking. </p><p>“What are you talking about?” Karolina asks, before turning to Nico. “We named Rufus after the snowpal we built on our first sort of date together, right Nico?”</p><p>“Uh… I mean, yes, the snowpal was also named Rufus… But I guess <em>technically</em> the snowpal wasn’t the first…” the shorter girl responds, more awkward than Victor’s ever seen her be before, and he does his best to stifle his laughter at the sight. </p><p>He evidently doesn’t do a great job at it if the glare the girl sends over is any indication, but thankfully her attention is pulled back to her wife a moment later. </p><p>“Nico…” the blonde says slowly, an amused smile playing at her lips even as her eyes narrow accusingly. “Please tell me our son isn’t named after a cat.”</p><p>Nico’s silent for a minute, seeming to internally debate what the correct response is, before a sheepish expression takes over her face. “He was a really nice cat, if that helps?” she offers, causing laughter to break out around the room, and after a few seconds, Karolina joins in happily too, and Nico releases a relieved sigh. </p><p>“Oh man, she used to carry that cat around everywhere with her when we were kids,” Chase grins once the laughter has died down. </p><p>“Aw, that’s so cute!” Karolina beams, wrapping an arm around her wife and pulling her closer to her side.</p><p>“I was hoping you’d forgotten…” a blushing Nico mumbles, looking pointedly at Chase, who just grins wider in response. “You’re not mad though?” she continues, turning towards the girl next to her, who shrugs before responding. </p><p>“I mean, I would’ve liked it if you’d told me sooner. But no, I’m not mad. It’s sweet, if you think about it. I’m glad we could find a name that means so much to you,” she tells her wife sweetly before leaning in to kiss her softly, and Victor can’t help but turn to look at the boy next to him fondly. </p><p>Chase doesn’t notice his gaze at first, too focused on tickling the little boy on his lap, causing the kid to squirm and giggle adorably before trying to tickle the older boy back. </p><p>And yeah, Victor really wants a future just like this, them surrounded by their family, maybe a couple kids of their own, Chase by his side. </p><p>The blonde boy looks up then, blue eyes meeting brown, and smiles softly at the boy, like maybe they’re thinking the same thing, before reaching over with his hand not holding Rufus and intertwining their fingers. </p><p>Victor smiles. </p><p>The conversation continues easily from there, and the five of them chat casually for hours, Rufus occasionally interrupting to show people his toys or make dinosaur noises as he runs around the room. </p><p>Eventually board games make an appearance, and although there are an ungodly number of arguments that break out over the specific wording of the rules and whether or not Chase is technically cheating, everyone has an excellent time, joking and laughing late into the evening surrounded by their family. </p><p>Pizza is ordered, after a failed attempt at a Christmas dinner courtesy of Chase, who had insisted on being in charge of the meal since Nico and Karolina had been kind enough to host them all at their vacation home. </p><p>But Victor couldn’t be happier as they all settle under blankets in the living room to watch Christmas romcoms together that night. </p><p>And so yeah, maybe Christmases with his family are sometimes unconventional, missing some of the things he used to consider essential to the full holiday experience, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. </p><p>Simple interactions with the people he loves and spending time with his family is where the real magic of the holidays lies, and as Victor watches the movie, snuggled tightly against his boyfriend’s side, he decides that what he has here is better than <em>any</em> Christmas romcom.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>What are people's thoughts on Chase and Victor as a couple, those of you who have read the comics?  I hadn't really thought about them together until I was writing this fic, and I think they would make a cute couple, but I've barely seen anything about the two of them, so I was wondering what you all think?</p>
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